Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves says that the next general elections in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, widely expected later this year, “is the most important election we will ever face”.
“We have hurricanes coming now, more powerful than ever before. We have challenges from all around the world more powerful than ever before. We have wars in Ukraine. We have genocide in Gaza, and all of them affect the price of your bread and your gas and your electricity right here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“And you need leadership with vision to take us through these trying times; you need experience to take you through these trying times, and experience is something that the NDP has none of unless you count experience in losing elections,” he said.
The New Democratic Party (NDP) is expected to present the main challenge to the ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP) as it seeks a sixth consecutive five-year term in office.
Vincentinas are expected to elect a new government by November, ahead of the February 2026 constitutional deadline.
“If you look at the NDP, from (Godwin) Friday down to the last one on the bench, not one of them has served one day in any government at any point in their life,” he said, referring to the opposition leader.
“They don’t know how to pay a salary, they don’t know how to pay a loan, they don’t know how to draft a law,” said Gonslves, who is expected to seek a third term as MP for East St. George.
“They don’t know how to bring help to the poor and the vulnerable in this country, because none of them have ever done it before, and all the people who could have tell them how to do it have gone to the great beyond.”
He noted that former prime minister Sir James Mitchell and former ministers John Horne and Allan Cruickshank, have died since the NDP went into opposition in March 2001.
“When Ralph came in, he was led by another titan who used to represent you here in North Central Windward, the great Sir Vincent beache,” the finance minister said in Colonarie, where North Central Windward confirmed the prime minister as the Unity Labour Party’s candidate in the next general election.
The older Gonsalves also had no experience in government when he came to office in March 2001, seven years after he was first elected to Parliament.
“And Sir Vincent held Ralph’s hand, along with Arthur Williams, another great from the Labour Party past, and said, ‘This is how you do it.’
“There is nobody in their party to hold their hand and tell them how to do it and to avoid disaster. If a miracle happened and they won an election, is right back to Ralph Gonsalves they would have to go to ask them how to run the country.”
The finance minister said the NDP has “no vision … no plan … no experience; and we have it all in abundance in the Unity Labour Party”.
He was speaking at an event at which the party supporters confirmed the prime minister as their candidate for North Central Windward in the upcoming polls.
“You have done a good thing today in electing and selecting Ralph Gonsalves to represent you again. He is sharp and he is energetic, and his vision now is to take St. Vincent and the Grenadines from a less-developed to a medium-developed to a high-developed to a first-world country that other people will want to come to us instead of us wanting to go to other countries,” he said of his father, one day after the prime minister’s 79th birthday.
“His vision is to make sure that every young person in this country has an embarrassment of opportunities. ‘Should I go to college? Should I be an entrepreneur? Should I work here? Should I work there? Should I buy a townhouse or a stand-alone house? What sort of support will I get for my family? What sort of health care will I get? Should I work in a hotel? Should I work in the government? Should I work in a corporation?'” the finance minister said.
“His vision is that all people who have served this country will have an opportunity to be honoured in their old age and respected, and have their views and experience counted on.”
He said the prime minister’s vision is to make SVG a sporting powerhouse.
“His vision is to honour the cricketers of the past and those who helped shape us in the country we are today,” he said, referring to the activities of the government between July and early August to mark the 50th anniversary of the West Indies Men’s Team winning the Cricket World Cup.
“His vision is to uplift every single Vincentian and leave no one behind, and that is why you are blessed to have the greatest leader that the Labour Party has ever had. You are blessed to have one of the greatest prime ministers anywhere in the world that we’ve ever seen,” the finance minister said.
He said that only the prime minister can make SVG a first-world country.
“Only Ralph and Labour can continue to lift us higher, and only Ralph and Labour can win the next general election. We love you. You are our family. You are our friends. You are our inspiration,” the finance minister told party supporters.
“We will always work for you, and we will always follow the teachings of the great Ralph Gonsalves. You have done well to reselect him, and we will do well for you in the next election and elections beyond.”
How is this even possible Ralph Gonsalves is the prime minister and his son is the finance minister. A true banana republic. I don’t see this arrangement happening elsewhere in the Caribbean.
Twenty five years! A whole generation under Gonsalves and all we got were big buildings and yes- men managing them into the ground. Borrowing upon borrowing. If St. Vincent needs a broomstick they have to go to a bank to-get the money to buy it. Is this the vision he means. Imagine working and basic monthly items like like foodstuff you have to take a loan to pay. Imagine borrowing loans to pay your workers! How sustainable is that? Imagine borrowing loan to repay other loans , how sustainable is that? Imagine your senior and experience worker leaving St. Vincent in droves because they can’t survive on the low wages! This is the vision he talking about?
in my opinion a first world country fo crime rape sending people to crazy home after enjoying dem, . don’t know how aryo do sleep at nights after making mandate fo suffer people who refuse to take a poison in dem body, lost home, and everything, children suffer , some now ill and can’t get proper medical care, dem young ones who dying suddenly , boy aryo really really wicked spiteful evil, the devil would have been more kinder to his demons, ar yo darm wicked. It is written, The sins of the parents will visit the children up to the 3rd and 4 th generation.
If Camillo truly believes in all this political rhetoric, including his assertion that there is “genocide” in Gaza, he doesn’t deserve to be re-elected.
If truth be told, SVG, like many other Caribbean countries, is headed for a deep and dark economic depression — yes, depression, not recession — that will take decades to recover from as the safety valve of migration to other countries is reduced to a trickle.
So Camillo it’s only the Ulp has solution to our myraif problems? If that’s the case how we cannot solve our runaway crime rate which is the highest in the word. Myopic I would say. It would be suicidal to grant the ulp six in a row