2000 Saint Kitts and Nevis general election
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General elections were held in Saint Kitts and Nevis on 6 March 2000. The result was a victory for the Saint Kitts and Nevis Labour Party, which won eight of the eleven directly-elected seats in the National Assembly. Voter turnout was 64.2%.
4.14pp) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
6 March 2000
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11 of 15 seats in the National Assembly 6 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Registered | 34,166 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 64.24% ( 4.14pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Results by constituency | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Background and campaign
In February 2000, the prime minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Denzil Douglas, announced that there would be an election in March 2000, four months before a general election was constitutionally due.[1] The Saint Kitts and Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) under Douglas' leadership had governed since the 1995 election, when they had won a majority with 7 of 11 elected seats.[2]
This was the first general election for the federation since the unsuccessful Nevisian independence referendum in 1998, leading Douglas to state in a campaign rally that if his party lost power to the People's Action Movement (PAM), it could lead to a PAM-led coalition with Nevisian parties and "instability and confusion" for the federation.[3] The extradition of a notable alleged drug trafficker to the United States in February 2000 was seen by experts as being likely to boost the SKNLP's campaign.[4][3][5] The PAM and its former prime minister Kennedy Simmonds criticised Labour's economic record and the level of government debt.[3][6]
In Nevis, the Concerned Citizens' Movement leader and Nevis Premier Vance Amory campaigned on his claimed successes in government locally in Nevis.[5]
Results
Voting took place on 6 March 2000 and resulted in a landslide victory for the SKNLP, which won all eight seats on Saint Kitts and therefore held a majority in the National Assembly.[7][3] Notably, PAM's only member of parliament and Leader of the Opposition, Hugh Heyliger, lost his seat to the SKNLP's Jacinth Henry-Martin.[3] Turnout for the election was 64.2%.[8]
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| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| Saint Kitts and Nevis Labour Party | 11,762 | 53.85 | 8 | +1 | |
| People's Action Movement | 6,468 | 29.61 | 0 | –1 | |
| Concerned Citizens' Movement | 1,901 | 8.70 | 2 | 0 | |
| Nevis Reformation Party | 1,710 | 7.83 | 1 | 0 | |
| Appointed members | 4 | 0 | |||
| Total | 21,841 | 100.00 | 15 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 21,841 | 99.51 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 108 | 0.49 | |||
| Total votes | 21,949 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 34,166 | 64.24 | |||
| Source: Caribbean Elections | |||||