KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – The Barbados-based regional pollster and political scientist, Peter Wickham, says he does not believe that the controversy surrounding the use of the COVID-19 vaccine will play a significant role in the outcome of the next general elections in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“I honestly don’t see the big deal,” he said, adding, “I’m a bit surprised that five years on, this thing even comes up. I sense that the Vincentians have assessed the government as having passed the COVID test.
“The fact that they were able to win that election was essentially a statement of the population’s approval of how COVID was being managed,” Wickham said, referring to the November 2020 election, which took place a year before the mandate came into effect.
“The economy is back on its feet now and moving forward, and clearly the COVID test was passed. So, I don’t know there’s a lot of currency or relevance in terms of going after that issue again,” he added.
Vincentians are widely expected to go to the polls by November this year, ahead of the February 2026 constitutional deadline, with the ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP) seeking an unprecedented and historic sixth consecutive term in power. Its main challenge will come from the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP). In the last election, the ULP won nine of the 15 seats in the Parliament.
In late 2021, the government of Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves mandated that a large section of the public service take a COVID-19 jab or be deemed to have abandoned their jobs.
As a result, hundreds of workers lost their jobs and several trade unions. The St. Vincent and the Grenadines Teachers’ Union, Public Service Union, and Police Welfare Association took the matter to the courts.
But while the High Court ruled in favour of the dismissed workers, the Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 majority, overturned that decision.
The unions have already indicated that they will take the matter to the London-based Privy Council, the country’s highest and final court.
Speaking on a radio programme here on Sunday, Wickham, who has conducted research work for the ULP, was asked for his opinion on the role the mandate might play as Vincentians elect a new government.
“I am surprised that that would still be an issue, because I think that most people have gotten past it in many ways,” Wickham said.
“My problem with that whole vaccine mandate thing was that I always thought that the vaccine mandate was necessary, and I have a bias in that regard, that I am a person that believes that — I went to school and I got vaccinated, and I think that people, when you have a public health crisis, should get vaccinated.”
Wickham said he respects religious rights but “had challenges understanding why people that had no scientific basis, and they were contraindicated, they didn’t have any medical condition, they weren’t religious, they were just insistent that they’re not going to take the vaccine”.
The pollster said that he has done research for the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) on vaccines and vaccinations that found that “a lot of those people who refused to take the vaccine, they were doing so because they want to make a political statement.
“And I thought it was unfortunate. You’re going to use that kind of crisis to make a political statement? But that’s what it was.
“I do have a bias in this regard, but I’m a bit surprised that that’s even an issue still, because my thing is, so much has happened since that. Vincentians have gone past that,” Wickham told radio listeners.
The NDP, while supporting COVID-19 vaccination, opposed the mandate, with several of its legislators stating that they had not received the jab, resulting in them having to observe special protocols in Parliament, such as wearing a face mask.
Wickham expressed the view that if the NDP were in power, they probably would have mandated COVID-19 vaccination,’ because that’s the thing. I mean, when you’re in control, you have to make hard decisions.
“We did not have a mandate in Barbados in the same way, because our population was compliant; everybody went like sheep and got the vaccination, myself included. … They didn’t have vaccine mandates in the vast majority of European countries, either, simply because everybody was taking it, people were lining up to take it and say, ‘Yeah, when can I get it?”
Wickham said there were vaccine mandates in places “where there were sections of the population that were resilient and saying, ‘we are not taking this vaccine.
“So, the uptake was slow. To open the economy, the government had to make some tough decisions. And I would hazard a guess, if the NDP were in power, they would have done the same thing, because they would have been facing the same kind of problem that Ralph Gonsalves was facing, where he’s saying, ‘Look, we have to get this economy going again and country open and whatnot.”
Wickham said he was fascinated that people who refused to take the jab took it to go on vacation in the United States, noting also that people have to take the yellow fever vaccine to visit Jamaica.
“And, everyone goes and gets a yellow fever vaccination,” Wickham added.
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