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%.
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. 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., KnowledgeWalk Institute, Caribbean Elections
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. 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. The PAM and its former prime minister Kennedy Simmonds criticised Labour's economic record and the level of government debt.
In Nevis, the Concerned Citizens' Movement leader and Nevis Premier Vance Amory campaigned on his claimed successes in government locally in Nevis. 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.Nohlen, D (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p574 Notably, PAM's only member of parliament and Leader of the Opposition, Hugh Heyliger, lost his seat to the SKNLP's Jacinth Henry-Martin. Turnout for the election was 64.2%.Nohlen, p577
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