From the Supervisor of Elections – Vol II No 12: The 2021 Annual Register of Voters

From the Supervisor of Elections
Vol II Issue No 12: The 2021 Annual Register of Voters

The 2021 Annual Register of Voters list was released on January 29th, with 48,666 electors. There were 36,309 in St. Kitts and 12,357 in Nevis. This represents a 4.2% increase on the 2020 Revised Register overall, a 4.35% growth in St Kitts and a 3.8% increase in Nevis. Of course, this list will be decreased when the names of dead persons are removed; and may be decreased even further depending on the results of any objections that are made.

Constituency # 8 (Cayon to St Peters) climbed to 7,037 voters, representing 14.45% of all voters, followed by Constituency # 9 (St Johns) with 6,479 or 13.3% of voters. These two constituencies therefore control more than a quarter of all voters. Constituency # 10 (Gingerland), by contrast, has 1,783 voters or 3.7% of voters. The smallest constituency in St. Kitts is #5 (Sandy Point), containing 3,146 voters (6.5%). What these numbers reveal is consistent with what the previous list was showing.

The greatest growth was in Constituency #1 that had an increase of 367 persons over the 2020 Revised Annual Register of Voters (RARV) or 6.4%. Next was Constituency #8 (Cayon to St Peters) with an increase of 353 persons or 5.3%. Constituency # 7 had 19 new persons (0.5%). For Nevis, there were 230 new persons in Constituency #9 (3.7% increase) and St James’/St. Thomas’ was also very active with 186 new registrants or a 4.8% increase. Gingerland, Constituency 10, traditionally a slow mover, had 37 new persons (2.1% increase).

Objections to registrants were received in 7 of the constituencies, 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 11. In four of the constituencies, 2, 4, 6 & 10, there were no objections whatsoever. There were 495 objections total, suggesting an “error” rate of 1%. Put more positively, at first glance, the ARV is 99% accurate. Besides, of the 495 objections, more than half – 260 or 52.5% – were objections were claiming that the person is dead. The remaining 235 objections will be adjudicated by the Registration Officers in the next two months.

For those who are interested in information per island, there were 239 objections in Nevis for a suggested error rate of 1.9%. Of these objections, 82 (34%) are claimed to have died, according to the objectors. Meanwhile, with 256 objections in St Kitts, the error rate is 0.7%. and roughly 70% of the group had allegedly passed away. In other words, the Voters List is relatively clean.

There is no requirement to produce an annual register for the districts in Nevis, but for persons who are interested, St Paul’s has 2,204 voters, St. Johns has 4,275 voters, St Georges has 1,783 voters, St. James has 2,470 voters and St Thomas’ has 1,625 voters. This will become the foundation of the Voters list should elections be called this year; this along with all of the eligible monthly activated voters from December 2020 onwards.

This is yet another way to ensure one person gets one vote in the right place.