Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has suggested that he will seek a fifth term as prime minister and that he will win again if he does so.
“…I know if I go back I will win again — as the sun shines tomorrow,” said the 72-year-leader, who has been a Member of Parliament for a quarter century.
He further told a press conference in Kingstown on Tuesday that his confidence has nothing to do with rigging elections and that he “might answer the call from the people not to walk away yet.
“Because some things I hear some people talking, I might have to stand up in the front line and take them on very sharply,” he said.
Gonsalves has long indicated that this would be his last term as prime minister, unless his party asks him to remain but that he will seek re-election as Member of Parliament for North Central Windward, which he has been representing for a quarter century.
Among other things, in the campaign for the 2015 general elections, he asked voters to give him another terms to prepare a new generation of leaders for his Unity Labour Party, which has been in office since 2001.
However, with just over two years before general elections are due, the ULP is yet to transition to a new leader and the party has not held a convention since in December 2015.
Political observers say that the government has shown some signs of transition.
They have pointed to the prime minister’s decision last year to assign the finance minister ministry — which he had held since 2001 — to his son, Camillo Gonsalves.
The younger Gonsalves is a former senator and minister of foreign affairs, who is into his first term as Member of Parliament for East St. George.
The PM must have internal polling numbers that indicate that Camillo as leader of the ULP would result in a loss of power. Still, he doesn’t want the other potential candidate, Caesar, to replace him.
My own prediction is that the ULP will win again with the Comrade as leader not because he has done a wonderful job during his four terms in office but because the NDP has poor candidates, worse leadership, and no policies.
Just look at how the ULP has managed to attract so many young, well educated, and bright people to run for office while the NDP is stuck with a lot of has-beens and pathetic losers.
Lol, I agree with C. Ben again!
one of the times we seldom agree lol
The NDP clearly has better policy than the ULP. To start with the NDP does not have a policy to spend money that we do not have and will not have for hundreds of years. The NDP wants to significantly improve heath care. Gonsalves says it is not important. The NDP wants to maintain the roads. Gonsalves demonstrates it is not going to happen with him in office. The ULP only know how to spend money on loser projects. C. Ben writes bad about the airport but by his comment above he demonstrates that he actually is in favor of the biggest economic/financial disaster in the history of the country. He fools us by acting like he is against the policy of the ULP but now he says they have great policy and the NDP have none.
Odd that C. Ben NEVER has any examples of “the bad” of the NDP.
Well people: if we want to be realistic; as SVG patriots, we would understand where PM Gonsalves is coming from within his reason of asking “voters to give him another terms to prepare a new generation of leaders for his Unity Labour Party.”
A very high percentage of us believe that his goal was that his eldest son the minister of finance, Camillo Gonsalves was being mentored to take over, unfortunately has disappointed not only our PM (his father) but many traditional ULP supporters and those whom our PM holds great respect and loyalty to.
Yes, like the PM, we love our SVG and would hope that whoever deemed the carrier of the torch, not only feel and love our land and people but understand that “a patriot’s blood is the seed of Freedom’s tree” for their nation.
Bravo. Excellent comment.
I wonder who you going to sue when you don’t win.
If you are allowed to win then CCJ is coming by hook or crook, big changes to the constitution are coming to pave the way for dictatorship. More unemployment is coming. Cost of living will go through the roof. Criminals will have free reign. Police will loose more dope from the evidence lockup. Judges will send more people to mental home. Kingstown will get filthier. Youths will have even less prospects.
More Grenadines islands will be sold to foreigners. No freedom of information act that will expose the excesses of your government.
People could sing more blues just looking at your cabinet performance and the quality of life for the citizens.
This must be the pride before the fall.
When Vinciman and Vinciwoman stop laugh we will see if you can win.
Insane fear mongering.
You are very accurate. All he has to do is pass out even more building supplies and who knows what, a year before elections. This sort of policy is what contributes to the bad work ethic of our people. They think they do not have to work for anything, just wait until elections and get things free. You are right, the country will continue to decline in every aspect: morals, justice, GDP, etc…
Jamal you and I both know that you can’t call a spade a club. We agree on that.
Can anyone please help me to understand why St Vincent and the Grenadines is the least develop of all the other Caribbean Island. What is the PM doing, I feel very sad for my fellow vincentains. Please guys opened your eyes be smart, look at what is happening 45% unemployment, cost of living is very high and only the children from the party in power are getting all the sweet heart deals. Something to think of.. Change is painful but nothing is as painful as staying stuck where you do not belong.
There are several poorer Caribbean countries including Jamaica, Grenada, Monserrat, Guyana, and Haiti. In fact, we are a lower middle income country, something we should be proud of because that means chronic poverty has been greatly reduced.
I feel the same way you do.
I can’t blame you PM. There is no better alternative for SVG at this time. NDP simply does not have anymore traction. I lost faith in them when they began to ask other Caribbean leaders about strategies to win. It demonstrated lack of vision. In addition, NDP wants to sell off this country to the Chinese by not putting the country to work but to rely on Chinese money, which they wouldn’t be able to repay.
Well said though I would be happy to see SVG sold off the the Chinese, something that would make us better off economically while reducing the crime rate by two-thirds or more.
There are many of you ULP Propagandists that frequent these sites. Including C. Ben who will miss no opportunity to bad-mouth the NDP based on what some other politician in the NDP did 20 years ago. The NDP does not suggest spending beyond our means. Any fool can propose ways to spend money. The NDP instead suggests we maintain what we already have: fix the roads, fix leaking roofs of Government buildings, put glass in the school windows and get the students desks so they do not have to stand in the classrooms all day. All this not to mention the deplorable state of Milton Cato Hospital! The ULP ignores these things and people like you will continue to keep them in power. Do not forget, Friday is not Mitchell. the name of the party does not matter. Just consider a LABOUR PARTY that does not support labour, thus the high unemployment. What should the NDP do instead…pass out building materials?
I love the USA system where a Leader is limited to two terms. I think after two terms, the reins of leadership ought to change. The transition in the ULP is constant as we see the constant emergence of young and bright politicians. Compare this with the NDPs choices…
However, in SVG, one asks whether the NDP is an alternative, more so a viable one? The NDP continuously fails to impress me on actual and feasible plans for my country. The anti Ralph campaign has failed for 4 elections and the NDP has failed to realise this.
Some people are ready for a change, the majority I feel will stick with what they already know as the change proffered doesnt match up!
Those people who go around thinking and saying that there is no alternative to Gonsalves are exhibiting short-sightedness and cowardice, in my view. Why should we follow a leader who has proven that he is incapable of doing this job to continue?
Sometimes I read how people get frustrated and call their country-men backward and dunce.
I agree with Evie (above). Explain why SVG is the least developed nation in the eastern Caribbean.
Why do the citizens look like they just escaped from rural Africa? Are people blind to all that has happened? Do people not know what is taking place?
I don’t think that Dr.Friday and the opposition are less capable than Ralf Gonsalves. As a matter of fact, Dr. Friday has a fresher set of brains and he is lest […] tainted than Gonsalves. How can we give Gonsalves another chance when we are at the back of the race? How? We will be complaining for the next five years. Gonsalves is not a stupid man but, his tenure must now come to an end. Enough is enough.
It is that !?@#*§ Michel who should take a back seat and enjoy his pension. And stop throwing spanner in the works.
LMAO @ Mitchell remark …dwl
I agree and we see that C. Ben David is out there in full support of Ralph Gonsalves, in his secret way, of course. And insuring he bad-mouths the NDP at any opportunity. Those that say the NDP has nothing to offer are very much mistaken. The NDP does not promise to spend money we do not have. As the ULP constantly has been doing. Any fool can spend money and that is what we look like as a nation. The ULP has been able to stay in power by spending and spending some more of money that our children’s children will still be enslaved paying. Any fool can propose ways to blow money. I thank the NDP for being honest all this time as well as not proposing lavish spending of money we do not have!
I agree that Ralph Gonsalves is going to try to run again because his son has disappointed the ULP and certainly those nt aligned to any party. The PM seems to not trust Soboto Caesar to carry out his agenda of impoverishing the nation so he has passed over him in spite of his being the most liked ULP Candidate.
LMAO SMDH….money is to spend , money should be borrowed …ask the millionaires and billionaires where they get their money from to invest . this is the business model of Capitalism and Democracy . ……tired of explaining this system ….Google it !!!
AI is mixed up. He himself should Google Capitalism. Capitalism is BUILDING CAPITAL; in other words…more related to saving money, not borrowing money. He is thinking about Keynesian Economics such as what we do in SVG— borrow, borrow borrow = debt, debt, debt, just like the USA. By the way, Keynes was a Socialist!