St Kitts and Nevis
Country in the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea, part of the Leeward Islands.
Government
The islands of St Kitts (St Christopher) and Nevis form a federal state within the Commonwealth and have a stable, multiparty parliamentary democracy. The constitution dates from independence in 1983. The governor general is the formal head of state, representing the British monarch, and appoints the prime minister and cabinet, who are drawn from and responsible to the assembly. There is a single-chamber legislature, the national assembly of St Kitts and Nevis. It comprises 14 members, 11 elected by universal suffrage and three ‘senators’ appointed by the governor general, two on the advice of the prime minister and one on the advice of the leader of the opposition, for a term of up to five years.Nevis Island has considerable autonomy, with its own assembly of five elected and three nominated members, a prime minister and cabinet, and a deputy governor general. It has the option to secede in certain conditions laid down in the constitution.
History
The original American Indian inhabitants were Caribs. St Kitts (then called Liamuiga) and Nevis were named by Christopher Columbus in 1493. St Kitts became Britain's first West Indian colony in 1624, but was partitioned with France in 1625. Nevis was settled in 1628 by the British. France also claimed ownership until 1713. Sugar plantations were worked by slaves, leading to dominance of the islands by a planter elite.The islands were part of the Leeward Islands Federation from 1871 to 1956 and a single colony with the British Virgin Islands until 1960. The collapse of sugar prices during the Great Depression of the 1930s contributed to development of an organized labour movement. Robert Bradshaw set up a Worker's League in 1932, which was behind labour riots 1935–36, and the league set up a political arm, the St Kitts and Nevis Labour Party (SKLP), in 1940. The islands joined the failed West Indies federation from 1958 to 1962. In 1967 St Kitts, Nevis, and Anguilla attained internal self-government within the Commonwealth as associated states, and Robert Bradshaw, leader of the Labour Party, became the first prime minister. In 1970 the Nevis Reformation Party (NRP) was formed, calling for separation for Nevis, and the following year Anguilla, chose to return to being a British dependency.
Under Bradshaw, sugar plantations were gradually bought out and put under state control. In opposition, families of former estate owners founded the People's Action Movement (PAM) party in 1964. Bradshaw died in 1978 and was succeeded by his deputy, Paul Southwell. He died the following year, to be replaced by Lee L Moore. The 1980 general election produced a PAM–NRP coalition government, with the PAM leader, Dr Kennedy Simmonds, as prime minister.
Independence
On 1 September 1983 St Kitts and Nevis achieved independence. In the 1984 general election the PAM–NRP coalition was decisively returned to office. PAM won six out of the 11 elective assembly seats in the 1989 general election and Dr Kennedy Simmonds continued as prime minister. The economy grew, based increasingly around tourism, but income divisions widened. Despite opposition calls for his resignation during 1993, Simmonds remained in office and in December, after an inconclusive general election, established a minority coalition government. Antigovernment demonstrations followed on Nevis, where a new party, the Concerned Citizens' Movement (CCM), had polled strongly. A snap general election in July 1995 resulted in a win for the Labour Party (SKLP) and its leader, Denzil Douglas, became prime minister. The SKLP, led by Douglas, were re-elected in general elections in 2000 and 2004, but with increasingly narrow victories.In August 1998 a referendum on the island of Nevis, seeking secession from the federation, failed to secure the required two-thirds majority support, but the government gave greater autonomy to the island. In September 1998, Hurricane Georges caused about $445 million in damage. In 2005, the islands' sugar industry was closed, after mounting financial losses.
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