Denzil Douglas

Born on 14 January 1953[2] in the village of St. Pauls, Douglas studied medicine as a young man. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in 1977 and a Degree in Medicine in 1984 from the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill.[3] In 1986 he established a private medical practice as a family physician and served as President of the St. Kitts-Nevis Medical Association in the late 1980s.[2]

Douglas was elected M.P. for St. Christopher (No.6) ward (Newton Ground, St. Paul's, Dieppe Bay, Saddlers, and Harris) in the National Assembly of Saint Kitts and Nevis in 1989 and appointed Leader of the Opposition. That year he was also elected leader of the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party after some internal wrangling for the leadership between himself and the then incumbent political leader Sir Lee L Moore. This internal feud was after Sir Lee L Moore had lost his seat in constituency number 4.

He restructured the party in preparation for its 1995 electoral victory. He was appointed Prime Minister of the Federation in 1995, re-appointed Prime Minister in March 2000 and again in October 2004 after the Labour Party won a third term with seven of the eight seats on St. Kitts. The Labour Party won its fourth consecutive term in office on 25 January 2010, winning six of the eight seats on St Kitts in the eleven-member National Assembly.

In 2014, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an Advisory to alert financial institutions that certain foreign individuals were abusing the Citizenship-by-Investment program sponsored by the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis (SKN) led by the Denzil Douglas Administration to obtain SKN passports for the purpose of engaging in illicit financial activity. As a result of these lax controls, illicit actors, including individuals intending to use the secondary citizenship to evade sanctions, can obtain an SKN passport with relative ease.[4] These events led to the United States revoking his visa.[5]

On 16 November 2019, The Mail on Sunday reported Douglas was detained at Gatwick Airport by the UK's Border Force. The Officers seized the equivalent of more than £70,000 – in sterling, US dollars and eastern Caribbean dollars – from him when he could not explain why he was attempting to leave the country with the cash. It was said he was the subject of a probe by the National Crime Agency.[6]

In 2011, Douglas was appointed to Her Majesty’s Privy Council, with the prefix "Right Honourable" added to his name.[7][8][9]

Today, after some 30 years at the helm, Dr Denzil has not put in place a succession plan for new leadership of the SKLP. His political career, since leaving office as Prime Minister in 2015, has been riled with scandal after scandal. The latest scandal being where the current Prime minister Dr Timothy Harris has read into the Hansard in parliament that Dr Denzil Douglas is the holder of a foreign diplomatic passport which is in violation of the St Kitts and Nevis' constitution.[10]

In 2011, Douglas was responsible for the OLPC (One Laptop per Child) program, which provided 2,000 free laptops per year from Taiwan to high school students.[11]

After losing the 2015 general election he has remained active in politics as leader of the opposition.[12]