By Kishawn Thomas

The NGO Coalition’s 22 pages election observer report came under fire and heavy condemnation and criticism from the High Command of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force and the St. Kitts-Nevis Defence Force in a joint statement

“It is our contention that the NGO Coalition report is nothing but a smoke screen to facilitate some hidden agenda”, the statement said.

The security forces said they have no choice but to demand the total retraction of the numerous documentation of falsehood and malicious reporting of allegations.

It was said that on no occasion was there any deliberate altercation between themselves and the voting public, notwithstanding the attempts by certain political elements to disrupt the free and fair conduct of the voting process.

In its report the Coalition reported that there was a very strong presence of the military in Constituency 4 (Halfway Tree) and the defence force personnel were also outfitted in riot gear with M16 rifles.

In response the joint statement by the Security Chief it was said that “the defence force commander denounces the allegation by the NGO Coalition that on polling day members of the defence force were deployed to Constituency 4 in riot gear and toting M16 rifles.”

The Defence Force Commander, Lt. Colonel Patrick Wallace said that soldiers of the force did not wear riot gear on polling day, nor were they deployed with M16 rifles for duties associated with the elections during the period of polling on Election Day.

The NGO Observer team also reported witnessing conservation between Prime Minister Denzil Douglas and the military, in which he berated them for their failure to collect voters from Constituency 6 in order for them to vote in Constituency 4 and 5. However Commander Wallace denounced the NGO Coalition allegation and said it was a blatant lie. He also condemned the Coalition observer’s accusation that military vehicles were used to transport voters on Election Day as malicious.

The election report claimed that “major concerns were raised by a number of voters and security personnel about the disruption of the poll in constituency 4 by the presence of the labour party candidate for Constituency 6 and that Dr. Douglas was responsible, in large measure for the prolong interruption of the traffic flow in and out of Half Way Tree.

The joint report said the above quoted from the NGO report “is an unfortunate assumption that the representative of Constituency 6 who was himself inconvenienced by the slow flow of traffic along the island main road on polling day and who had to walk eastward along the main road to the location where the labour party agent were positioned, was responsible for the situation”.