LABOR PARTY WINS 5 MORE YEARS.

The St. Kitts-Nevis Labor Party (SKNLP), headed by Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas, won the general election, securing a second consecutive five-year term of office, reports CANA (March 7, 2000):

The party won six of the first nine seats declared, with the others going to the two parties in Nevis. The victory was reminiscent of 1995, when the Labor Party won seven of the eight St. Kitts seats;

Former Prime Minister Dr. Kennedy Simmonds' Peoples Action Movement (PAM) lost the only seat it held in the 1995 election - Sandy Point - newcomer Jacinth Henry-Martin of the Labor Party polled 869 votes to defeat Opposition Leader Hugh Heyliger (769 votes). In Nevis, outgoing Premier Vance Amory's Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) won two of the three island seats.<BR>

St. Kitts-Nevis has a population of 45,000 (36,000 St. Kitts, 9,000 Nevis). St. Kitts is the bigger island (68 square miles, Nevis 36 square miles) and the seat of the central government. The economy is largely agricultural (sugar is a major source of foreign exchange), with some tourism and electronic component manufacturing. The islands have 34,163 registered voters. In some constituencies, fewer than half the voters cast a ballot.