KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – When voters in this Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country cast their ballots in the November 27 general election, the outcome could determine the future survival of the country’s two major political parties.
The ruling Unity Labor Party (ULP) of Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves is seeking an unprecedented sixth consecutive five-year term in office, and will face a challenge from the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) headed by Dr. Goodwin Friday..
Gonsalves, 79, who became prime minister in 2001, has led the ULP into the polls since becoming its leader in 1998, four years after the ULP emerged from a union of the St. Vincent Labor Party and the Movement for National Unity.
The late Sir Vincent Beache, who was the parliamentary representative for North Central Windward from 1974 to 1989 and the Member of Parliament for South Windward from 1994 to 2005, led the ULP for the first four years of its existence.
Unlike all of the previous elections, the ULP is facing the electorate without a deputy leader, three years after one was to have been elected at its last national convention in July 2022
During that convention, North Windward legislator Montgomery Daniel, then 68, was returned as deputy political leader, amid what political observers said was Gonsalves’ inability to get the majority of party members to coalesce around any one individual.
During the convention, some party supporters shouted “Caesar! Caesar!” in reference to the Saboto Caesar, the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Rural Transformation, Industry & Labor.
Daniel, 71, who has been representing North Windward since 2001, will not be seeking re-election at the upcoming polls.
Traditionally, the ULP MP with the second-longest stint as a parliamentary representative emerged as the party’s deputy political leader and deputy prime minister.
This means that, based on the makeup of the last Parliament, which was dissolved on Tuesday when the general election was held, Caesar, who is seeking election to a fourth term as MP for South Central Windward, should emerge as deputy leader of the ULP.
However, the issue is that Gonsalves favors his son, Camillo, who is also the Minister of Finance and East St. George parliamentary representative.
Political observers believe that how the ULP handles the leadership transition, regardless of the outcome of the next polls, could have a significant impact.
They point out that no organization has survived Gonsalves’ leadership and, given his failure to transition to new leadership 15 years after first promising to do so, the ULP could suffer the same fate.
In fact, Gonsalves is still at the helm of the ULP, although saying in his “LETTER FROM THE POLITICAL LEADER” in the party’s 2020 election manifesto: “I offer myself to lead our nation again for this last time.”
On the other hand, the NDP, which has been in opposition since 2001, is also in a survival mode. The party, which turns 50 in December, was in government from July 26, 1984, to March 28, 2001.
Since its formation, the party has changed leadership twice: when Arnhim Eustace succeeded Sir James Mitchell in October 2000, followed by the 66-year-old Friday in 2016.
The NDP has seen its political fortune increase since 2001, when it was booted out of office, 12-3 to the ULP.
The electorate returned the same result in 2005, even as Eustace, who was MP for East Kingstown from 1998 to November 2020 and served as prime minister for five months, worked to rebuild the NDP.
In 2010, the NDP won four additional seats, with the electorate giving the ULP the thinnest margin of victory. The 2015 election results were a carbon copy of 2010, with the ULP securing eight seats and the NDP seven, even as the ULP continued to decline, as evidenced by the popular vote.
However, both the NDP and the ULP saw improvements in their fortunes in 2020, when the ULP won an additional seat as it secured an unprecedented fifth consecutive five-year term to return to government, 9-6.
The additional seat was North Leeward, which the ULP won by a single vote after a contentious recount, even as the NDP won the popular vote for the first time since 1998.
Incumbent Central Kingstown legislator, St. Clair Leacock, 73, an NDP vice-president, highlighted the importance of a 2025 election victory to the NDP while campaigning on September 4.
He traced how the fortunes of the NDP had changed after he and West Kingstown MP, Daniel Cummings, were appointed as NDP senators, before they were elected parliamentary representatives in 2010.
Both Leacock and Cummings lost at their first outings at the polls in 2005, with Leacock being defeated by 16 votes and Cummings by 35.
“And I’ll make a prediction tonight, granted that it will not happen, because you, the people in Mahaut, will see to that,” Leacock said.
“But believe me, make that mistake and put Ralph back into government, he will make himself an executive president of this country, and will ride roughshod over the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“Because let’s face the reality, if the ULP goes back into office, the NDP is gone; it washes out. I call a spade a spade. Camillo would have achieved what he set out to do, ‘NDP must suffer and die’; forget about the ‘politically’ that he added after that.”
Leacock said an essential role in the 2025 election “is whether we want in St. Vincent and the Grenadines that our democracy survives.
“That thing which we got in 1951 for grandparents and parents to be able to participate and have a say here, whether that will continue,” he said, referring to adult suffrage.
Despite the prime minister’s age, the ULP has presented him as its best choice if it is to win another term in office.
This is even though the party boasts that three of its candidates are national scholars, representing, as the Finance Minister noted, “the brightest brains that we’ve produced in St. Vincent and the Grenadines”.
In that October 19 speech, the finance minister pointed out that 20 per cent of the NDP’s slate is older than 70, and one-half is over 60.
“They are the oldest, least-experienced party anywhere in the entire Caribbean, a whole set of old people who talk, but ain’t know how to do what they talk about,” Gonsalves said, noting that none of the NDP’s candidates have ever served in government.
He said the ULP had “the right mix of youthful energy”, adding that 20 per cent of the ULP team is under the age of 40.
“We have the young people. We have the middle-aged people, and we have the greatest prime minister ever in the entire Caribbean, in Dr. the Honorable Ralph Gonsalves.”
The 53-year-old finance minister was speaking one month after bringing the issue of age and vigor in politics in sharper focus when he said that his father, who is 26 years his senior, “still has more energy than all of us”.
The finance minister’s comments echoed a statement his father often makes: that he has “the youngest brain” in his Cabinet, whose youngest members are in their mid-30s.
The NDP was quick to latch onto the comment during their campaign, with Conroy Huggins, the party’s Central Leeward candidate, noting the age difference between the prime minister and the finance and agriculture ministers.
“And they’re trying to say them ah future leaders, and they are saying they can’t keep up with the old man. Could you imagine how they could come to lead this country? None of them has nah ha energy,” said Huggins, a first-time candidate.
East Kingstown MP, Fitz Bramble, also commented on the matter, saying, “You have the heir to the throne on the other side telling you that his 79-year-old daddy fitter than all of them put together.
“So if his son is telling you that his 79-year-old papa fitter than all of them, what is he saying to you? Please don’t vote for them. They don’t have the energy,” said Bramble, who is seeking a second term in office.
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