Double pay for St Kitts civil servants

Dr Douglas’ parliamentary term ends next Wednesday, December 16th, following which an election must be called within 90 days.

BASSETERRE, St Kitts, December 9, 2009 – Just one week before his parliamentary term ends, St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas has announced a bag of Christmas goodies to citizens, including tax waivers and a fat bonus for public workers. But what he still hasn’t delivered is a date for the general elections which are constitutionally due in about three months.

In an address to the nation on Monday night, Dr Douglas announced that civil servants and pensioners would receive the bonus.

"My Government will pay a double salary to public servants in December of this year. I know that our public servants have worked particularly hard in this time of global economic malaise to implement the stimulus programmes of the Government and I think they truly deserve this bonus,” he said.

“This bonus payment will also be made to Government pensioners and to workers in public corporations. Of course, our workers are the immediate beneficiaries of the bonus but we expect that the payment of the bonus will boost economic activity throughout the Federation and bring benefits to our retailers, traders and other businesses operating in our Federation. It is my hope that this double salary will therefore cause our business sector this Christmas to be as generous to their employees as possible.”

The Prime Minister also announced that the fuel surcharge on household consumption of electricity will be waived completely this month.

Effective immediately, and continuing until the end of the year, duty and taxes on the importation of paint for use by households beautifying their homes this Christmas will also be waived.

Dr Douglas’ parliamentary term ends next Wednesday, December 16th, following which an election must be called within 90 days.

But he has ruled out a December poll. He said the elections will likely be held in the New Year.

A poll conducted by the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES) has found that if the general elections were held last month, the ruling St Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) would have won a fourth term, although without increasing the number of seats it now holds in Parliament.

The survey was conducted during the last two weeks in November, based on 800 interviews conducted in all eight constituencies.
 
In the 2004 general election, the SKNLP won seven of the eight seats on St Kitts while Opposition People’s Action Movement (PAM) was victorious in the other seat. The Concerned Citizen Movement won two seats and the Nevis Reformation Party took one.

The two main political parties are engaged in a battle over changing the constituency boundaries ahead of the general elections.

A High Court earlier this week granted PAM a second injunction against the changes recommended by the Constituency Boundaries Commission.

Any alterations to constituency boundaries must get approval from the Parliament first and must then be signed into law by the Governor General. However, since Parliament will dissolve next week, the changes may not be effected before the general elections.