General elections were held in Saint Kitts and Nevis on 25 January 2010 for eleven of the fourteen or fifteen seats in the National Assembly. The other three or four members of the National Assembly will be appointed by the Governor-General after the elections.
The ruling Saint Kitts and Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP), led by Prime Minister Denzil Douglas, won a fourth term in office. It was opposed in the campaign by the opposition People's Action Movement (PAM), led by Lindsay Grant. Both parties received much of their support from the island of Saint Kitts, which chooses eight of the eleven elected members of the National Assembly.
On the neighboring island of Nevis, local parties, including the Nevis Reformation Party (NRP) and the Concerned Citizens' Movement (CCM), vied for three seats in the National Assembly. Support from Nevisian political parties could decide control of the national government in a tight election.
The continuing economic crisis was a major issue in the campaign. The national debt of Saint Kitts and Nevis had risen to US$2 billion under the SKNLP government, roughly $50,000 per citizen. Prime Minister Denzil Douglas shrugged off accusations that he had let the debt spiral upward during his fifteen years in office:
Before the 2010 election, the Labour Party controlled seven of the eight seats allocated to the island of Saint Kitts in the Assembly. The opposition People's Action Movement (PAM) controlled the other Saint Kitts seat. From nearby Nevis, the Concerned Citizens' Movement (CCM) controlled two of Nevis' three seats in the Assembly, while the opposition Nevis Reformation Party (NRP) controlled the other seat.