The prime minister, usually the leader of the largest party in the parliament, is head of government. Following legislative elections, prime ministers are appointed by the governor general, who represents the British monarch as the largely ceremonial head of state.

Terrance Drew of the St. Kitts and Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) became prime minister in 2022, succeeding Timothy Harris of the Team Unity coalition.

There are 14 seats in the unicameral National Assembly, occupied by 8 representatives from St. Kitts, 3 from Nevis, and 3 senators appointed by the governor general. Of those senators, 2 are selected on the advice of the prime minister and 1 on the advice of the opposition leader. All serve five-year terms.

The Team Unity coalition, which included the People’s Labour Party (PLP), Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM), and People’s Action Movement (PAM), was defeated in the 2022 elections by the SKNLP. The SKNLP won six seats, the CCM won three, and the PLP and PAM each won one. The polls were credible but suffered from the absence of campaign finance legislation.

Nevis has its own local legislature, with five elected and three appointed members. The incumbent CCM won the 2022 local elections, taking three elected seats. The Nevis Reformation Party (NRP) took two.

Electoral laws are generally fair and usually implemented impartially by the Electoral Commission. In a 2022 report, Organization of American States observers called on the government to redraw legislative constituencies to ensure better voter distribution; the country’s constituency boundaries were last changed when it gained independence in 1983.

There are no major constraints on the right to organize in different political parties and to form new parties.

Opposition candidates are generally able to campaign without restrictions or interference.

There are realistic opportunities for opposition parties to increase their support or gain power through elections. In 2015, the Team Unity coalition unseated the SKNLP, which had been in government since 1995. The SKNLP returned to power in the 2022 polls.

Candidates and voters can make political choices without undue interference. However, concerns have been raised about the lack of transparency of party and campaign financing, which could enable improper forms of political influence.

All citizens are formally entitled to equal political rights and electoral opportunities. While women play an active role in political parties and as grassroots organizers, representation in the National Assembly is poor. Only one woman won a seat in the 2022 elections, though another four were appointed. Some 38 percent of seats in the cabinet formed after the elections were held by women. Discrimination, sexist rhetoric, and intimidation toward women and their families discourage many from engaging in politics.

The population of St. Kitts is primarily Afro-Caribbean and Anglican, but other ethnic and religious groups engage in the political process.

LGBT+ people are marginalized and discriminated against, affecting their ability to engage in frontline politics.

The elected prime minister, cabinet, and national legislative representatives freely determine the policies of the government.

St. Kitts and Nevis’s anticorruption laws are mostly implemented effectively. The Integrity in Public Life Act (IPLA) was adopted in 2013, establishing a code of conduct for public officials and financial disclosure guidelines. However, its implementation rules were not issued until 2018. An amendment to the IPLA was passed in February 2023, but gaps remained: in December, the director of public prosecutions noted that one-fifth of public officials had failed to file financial disclosures with the Integrity in Public Life Commission.

In February 2023, the government revealed that there was at least EC$20 million (US$7.4 million) missing from the country’s development bank, and that the bank had not been audited since 2018. A forensic report was commissioned, but despite guarantees that its findings would be made public it had not been released by the end of 2023.

The Anti-Corruption Bill, 2023, which was passed in February, criminalized certain corrupt conduct and established a special prosecutor tasked with receiving complaints about, investigating, and prosecuting corruption. A bill protecting whistleblowers was approved in November.

In recent years, concerns have been raised about the country’s citizenship-by-investment and residence-by-investment programs. The government has introduced reforms to address these criticisms, including expanded background checks, stricter escrow-account rules, and mandatory interviews. Nonetheless, in October 2023, the European Union (EU) raised concerns about the security implications of citizenship-by-investment programs in St. Kitts and four other Caribbean countries and promised to revise its rules on visa-free travel.

The government generally operates with transparency. It long lacked a freedom of information law, which was passed in 2018 but only implemented in 2023. Legal exemptions protect information related to national security, court proceedings, trade secrets, intellectual property rights, and international relations.

Freedom of expression is constitutionally guaranteed, and the government generally respects press freedom in practice. However, the state owns the sole local television station, and the opposition faces some restrictions on access to it. Defamation is a criminal offense that can potentially carry a prison sentence. Some journalists reportedly self-censor in order to avoid pressure from government officials. Radio news coverage is relatively vibrant and pluralistic.

Freedom of religion is constitutionally protected and generally respected in practice.

The government generally respects academic freedom.

There are no significant constraints on individuals’ ability to express their personal views regarding political or other sensitive topics.

Freedom of assembly is constitutionally guaranteed and generally respected in practice. Demonstrations on various topics routinely proceed without incident.

Nongovernmental organizations generally operate without restrictions.

While workers may legally form unions, employers are not bound to recognize them. A union can engage in collective bargaining only if more than 50 percent of the company’s employees are members. The right to strike, while not protected by law, is generally respected in practice. Antiunion discrimination is prohibited, but employers found guilty of union-based discrimination are not required to rehire employees they fired.

The judiciary is largely independent. The highest court is the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC), but under certain circumstances there is a right of appeal to the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice and the Privy Council in London.

Defendants are guaranteed a range of due process rights, which are mostly respected in practice; legal provisions for a fair trial are generally observed. Arbitrary arrests are prohibited, and security forces generally operate professionally. However, extended pretrial detention is a problem, with some detainees remaining in custody for more than two years before facing trial or having their cases dismissed.

While the country is free of war and other such threats to physical security, in recent years the government has struggled to contain a high rate of violent crime, which is linked primarily to criminal groups fighting for territory and control of the domestic drug trade. The government has attempted to address the problem through various means, including a “Peace Initiative,” whereby members of criminal groups were encouraged to leave crime and enter legal occupations. Police have employed stop-and-search methods extensively. Prisons remain overcrowded.

Rates of violent crime, including homicide, increased in the first half of 2023. In response, the government announced a plan that included establishing a national security task force and increasing the presence of security forces. The early impact of the plan was limited, as the number of homicides continued to rise, reaching 31 by the end of the year.

The law protects individuals against discrimination on various grounds, including race, sex and religion, and these provisions are generally upheld. Rastafarians at times experience barriers to employment and other disadvantages due to discrimination.

The country’s migration system is slow and underfunded, but does offer some migrants the opportunity to apply for asylum and participate in society. However, the government usually tries to repatriate “illegal migrants,” which it stated in September 2023 is in the “interest of national security and the maintenance of the nation’s ‘zero-tolerance’ stance to human trafficking.”

Sexual orientation and gender identity are not protected, and societal discrimination against LGBT+ people is pervasive. Until recently, same-sex relations between men were illegal under colonial-era laws and punishable by up to 10 years in prison. In 2022, the ECSC ruled against two parts of the Offences Against the Person Act that prohibited same-sex relations, saying that they violated the freedom of expression and right to privacy.

No law specifically prohibits workplace sexual harassment.

There are no significant restrictions on freedom of movement in St. Kitts and Nevis, and individuals freely change their place of residence, employment, and education.

The legal framework generally supports private business activity, though there have been complaints about timely compensation for land confiscated via eminent domain and delays in registering property.

There are few restrictions on individual freedoms pertaining to personal status issues, though same-sex marriage is not recognized. Domestic violence is criminalized but remains widespread. Spousal rape is not specifically prohibited by law.

The law provides safeguards against exploitative working conditions, though lack of resources reportedly affects enforcement. The 2022 edition of the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report, the most recent edition to cover St. Kitts and Nevis, reported that the country served as a destination for human trafficking; victims arrived there through other Caribbean ports. Local human rights activists have alleged that human smugglers transit through the country regularly and have brought in sex workers and laborers.

In March 2023, around 13 people died after a boat capsized off the coast of St. Kitts in an alleged migrant smuggling attempt between Antigua and the US Virgin Islands. Authorities in St. Kitts rescued and detained 14 other migrants. Antigua and Barbuda refused to take the migrants back, despite an earlier commitment to do so. In June, the St. Kitts government said that the 14 migrants would be released from the detention center where they had been housed and relocated to an apartment complex while their applications for asylum were considered.