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Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, left, and Opposition Leader Arnhim Eustace. (IWN file montage)
Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, left, and Opposition Leader Arnhim Eustace. (IWN file montage)
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Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves says he does not think that the recent midterm elections in the United States will have an impact on the next general elections here, which can be called on March 28, 2016 at the latest, but are likely to be called sometime next year.

In the US midterm elections, President Barack Obama’s party, the Democrats, lost control of the Senate, giving the Republicans full control of Congress and the power to pin down Obama during his last two years in office.

The Gonsalves led Unity Labour Party (ULP), which is seeking a fourth consecutive terms in office, has seen its number of popular vote decrease every election since it came to office in 2001.

In the December 2010 poll, the ULP lost four seats to the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), holding on to power by a one-seat majority.

Similarly, Obama has seen his approval rating continue to slide since he came to office in 2008.

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Asked on Monday if he thinks that the outcome of the US midterms will influence Vincentian voters, Gonsalves said no.

“The dynamics of American politics and what drives the various states [are] entirely different from ours. It’s completely different, so that is of no connection to us,” Gonsalves said.

“In the case of the NDP under Arnhim Eustace, do they have any relations with anybody outside of St. Vincent and the Grenadines? I know Sir James [Mitchell] used to be internationalist and would have relations with a number of countries you don’t see what is happening?” he said in response to a question, in which a journalist had noted that the NDP once had a relationship with the Republican Party in the United States.

“The NDP has been seized by a certain parochialism, the only thing which they get associated with is some people in St. Kitts, two fellas come down here,” Gonsalves said.

He was referring to Kittitian opposition lawmaker and former government minister Timothy Harris and another of his colleagues, who had come to St. Vincent in March to highlight the political situation in Basseterre, where the opposition had failed to have the government debate a motion of no confidence for more than a year.

(St. Kitts opposition MP in St. Vincent to highlight political impasse

Gonsalves then went into a tirade against the NDP and some of its members and candidates. (See video below)

The NDP has announced its full slate of candidate for the next general elections, but the ULP are yet to announced candidate for several constituencies.

Gonsalves said that the ULP will convene constituency conferences to select candidate in South Central Windward, South Windward, and North Windward this month, and in East St. George in early December.

“We are putting together everything and then two in which we didn’t win and there are no candidates who named, but we will be moving shortly to bring the speculation to an end in West Kingstown and also in Central Kingstown,” he said.

4 replies on “Gonsalves sees no links between US midterms and SVG elections (+Video)”

  1. This guy never sees anything because he’s not that smart. Leave the poor man alone, he’s just a lawyer, he wouldn’t know how to answer this question. Ask him how to sue people, and he will give you all the details step by step, because that’s what a lawyer know how to do is find loop holes and sue.

    If you have any serious questions about economic impact of anything ask Eustace that is his field. This guy is making us look bad abroad everyday. Remember this is the guy who said that the financial downturn wouldn’t impact us, and that we are curps of an economic takeoff. Lmao sometimes I just have to laugh.

  2. Sir PM, I hear the queen of New York Ms. Bailey keep asking you about taking up her offer to go Canada, allow me Sir to answer on your behalf.

    The PM would go Canada When you Ms. Bailey get rid of all the malice, evil and spite you have and continue to show to your extended family. And most of all when you start to ensure your parents are taken care of by providing and make sure they have food on their table.

    Stay off the radio, how can you be professing so often to care about Vincentians when you don’t care for your parents?

    1. Where do Idiots like you come from. So you are hear with commess, and all the while the PM hasn’t been to Canada in years. Toronto has one of the biggest populations of Vincies but the PM can’t even cross a simple border and go represent us up there, ask the man why. The man travels thousands of miles to go to New York, but can’t travel a little more and go Toronto. Why is that? what is the man so afraid of? The opposition leader just came back from Toronto, and the PM can’t step foot up there.

      Vincies got visa from Canada and he still didn’t step foot up there. We want a leader who can go and represent us anywhere and not make us shame. Not one running like a Vampire from sunlight. So the reason PM isn’t going to Canada is because of some commess with Ms Bailey and her family?. I think you spelled Bailey wrong, the correct spelling is P.A.R.S.O.N.S. So now that we got that Misunderstanding out of the way,That’s the commess why he fraid like cat to go Canada. Tell us about that piece of commess if commess is all you want to talk. Tell us about the Parsons commess.

  3. Ms. Bailey and her MDP friends are a lost cause, trust me. It is due to these people why the NDP will lose the next elections. But the PM is correct. The NDP really has no international connections except for some very very reactionary people.

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