BASSETERRE – An opposition alliance won this week’s general elections in St. Kitts and Nevis, elections supervisor Wingrove George said on Tuesday, nearly 24 hours after the polls closed in the twin-island federation.

He said that Team Unity, an amalgam of three parties, had won seven of the 11 seats contested in Monday’s vote.

The other four seats were won by the St. Kitts-Nevis Labor Party and the Nevis Reformation Party, which teamed up with hopes of propelling Dr. Denzil Douglas to a fifth consecutive term as prime minister.

In a brief radio broadcast, George defended the decision not to announce the results earlier, asking the public to “remember that sometimes to be sure we have to take our time.”

“The writ issued by the Governor-General to the Returning Officers they have up until the 18th (February) to give me the final decision. So even though it might be long, it is not unlawful, it is not illegal and they would not go wrong in taking their time to do what they have to do,” George said.

“Like I said this morning, there were certain processes to go through, we had challenges, we had reviews, and it would have been very unprofessional of me, as supervisor of elections, to go and make announcements while the whole process will be revisited because if anything was to take a different turn I would have had to be updating and retracting statements,” he added.

Several regional governments had called on George to release the results.

Team Unity’s leader, 51-year-old economist Timothy Harris, will succeed Douglas as the nation’s prime minister.

Douglas, 62, retains his seat in the National Assembly.

The outgoing prime minister offered “sincere congratulations” to the new government and expressed “sincere and enduring gratitude” to the citizens “for the sacred honor that you bestowed on our party, by permitting us to manage the affairs of our blessed nation for the past 20 years.”

“To the friends and members of the St. Kitts-Nevis Labor Party – you have my undying gratitude. We, in St. Kitts & Nevis, are among the blessed of the earth. And we are among the blessed of the earth because our governments are chosen, not by force, not by decree, not by the whim of any force or interest, but by the will of the people,” Douglas said.