ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – The ruling Antigua and Barbuda Labor Party (ABLP) Thursday retained power in this Caribbean Community (CARICOM) government, winning nine of the 10 seats so far declared in the general election.
In the January 2023 general election, the ABLP had won nine of the 17 seats, but later increased its majority by winning a bye election and having at least one opposition legislator switch sides.
“We are humbled and honored by your support and confidence. Now is the time to move forward together, build on our gains, and continue our work on this long journey toward the betterment of our society and the upliftment of our people. From every one of us, THANK YOU,” Prime Minister Gaston Browne wrote on the Facebook page of the ruling party.
Preliminary figures released by the Antigua and Barbuda Electoral Commission (ABEC) show that the ABLP is also ahead in all of the other seats not yet declared, including those being contested by the leader of the main opposition United Progressive Party (UPP) Jamale Pringle and former UPP leader, Harold Lovell, a former finance minister who had following his defeat in the January 2023 general election, quit active politics.
Prime Minister Browne, who easily retained his St. John’s City West seat since 1999, had called the general election nearly two years ahead of the constitutional deadline.
Among the other victorious ABLP candidates is Browne’s wife, Maria, the public works minister in the last government, who easily defeated the UPP’s Ashworth Azille in the St. John’s Rural East constituency.
On the sister isle of Barbuda, the incumbent Trevor Walker of the Barbuda People’s Movement (BPM) retained the seat polling 609 votes as against 398 for Kendra Beazer, a former BPM member, who contested the poll on behalf of the ABLP.
Regional pollster Peter Wickham said that the results underscore the division within the opposition party, noting that the strong showing in 2023, when the UPP won seven seats, had “completely evaporated.
“I am seeing overall a swing of more than five per cent, which will allow the ABLP to win all the seats on the mainland probably,” the Barbados-based Wickham, who conducted opinion polls ahead of the general election, told television viewers.
“The swing is consistent,” he said, adding, “I am happy that the polling was telling us exactly what is happening. None of the three independent candidates had been a factor in the general election, with all losing their deposits.
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