- Kishore Shallow, 40, the youngest candidate on the NDP’s ticket, says St. Vincent and the Grenadines needs a better brand of politics.
- NDP leader Godwin Friday says the NDP sees in Vincentian youth the country’s full potential.
- NDP Chairman Daniel Cummings says first-time voters are at a disadvantage, having never lived under an NDP government.
The party is making its sixth bid to return to office after losing the March 2001 general election to the Unity Labour Party (ULP), which has controlled the reins of government since then.
The general election is widely expected by November, ahead of the February 2026 constitutional deadline.
Kishore Shallow, 40, the youngest candidate on the NDP ticket, spoke confidently of an NDP victory at the polls.
“The message is clear, nothing, absolutely nothing, is going to stop this election victory for the New Democratic Party,” he said after a heavy but brief downpour delayed his speech.
Shallow, a first-time candidate who will contest the North Leeward seat, said that over the past few weeks, even ULP MPs and candidates have been “confessing that some constituencies need better representation.
“In fact, … one of them even sang a song about it, saying that they need a better representation,” Shallow said.
“Of course, they need better representation all across St. Vincent and Grenadines and next election we are going to change that and ensure you get better representation.”
Shallow bragged about being the youngest candidate on the NDP ticket.
“I not stopping there, because if a 79-year-old man on the next side could say he’s the most youthful on their team, then I know we’re the most youthful party,” he said.
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, 79, has boasted of having “the youngest head” in the Cabinet. His son, Camillo Gonsalves, 53, who is the finance minister, has said that the prime minister has more energy than the rest of his team.
Shallow said that as the youngest candidate on the NDP ticket, he takes seriously his responsibility to speak on behalf of every young Vincentian.
“And I say this with great conviction, absorbing the way this government, this party, the Unity Labour Party, has been operating for the last 25 years, and I know my young people agree with me when I say that you need a better brand of politics in this country.”
Shallow said SVG needs politics that is “people-centric and youth-focused.
“I say that we need a brand of politics in this country with mature leadership like Dr. Friday, as opposed to looking over and degrading other people. We need a brand of politics in this country where we no longer promote partisanship and division with our people,” he said, referring to the NDP’s leader.
“And I say to you again with confidence that we need a brand of politics that not only in the last few months before elections, the government is going to come to you and try to solve your needs to get the vote back.”
NDP hears young people’s cries
Shallow said the NDP has heard the cries of young Vincentians for more and better-paid jobs.
“We know that you want a safer country similar to what our grandparents enjoyed then,” Shallow said.
“We know that regardless of your political orientation, you want to be part of a country where every single one of you could strive and thrive.
“And you know we want, as somebody who travels all the time, back a country where we could go and brag to the rest of the world that we are proud to be Vincentians.”
Shallow credited the NDP’s leader for tasking him with developing the party’s policy on the new economy.
“And with me, we have one of the leading minds in the entire region within information technology, Philip Jackson, who representing for Marriaqua,” Shallow said.
He said they have put together “what we believe is a robust and comprehensive policy that is going to see us enjoying the potential that exists for the new economy and the young people of our country”.
Shallow said he was referring to opportunities in digitalisation.
“It means job creation, it means better paid job, and it means convenience where you could stay at home and work and still earn money comfortably”
Shallow said the policy means adopting artificial intelligence, which is “critical, especially if we want to be more productive and more efficient with everything we do.
“This also means more and better paid jobs,” Shallow said, adding that the digital economy is a billion-dollar industry.
“They have billions of dollars waiting for us, and we have the potential and the capability to tap into that.”
He said young Vincentian creatives would have the opportunities to tap into the digital economy and earn well.
Shallow spoke about his passion for sports, saying the ULP has done nothing meaningful for sports in SVG over the last 25 years.
He said the NDP will ensure that this changes and that there are infrastructure and systems conducive to young people excelling in sports.
“My fellow young Vincentians, again, here at Sion Hill and you at home looking on online, I say to you simply, you deserve better,” Shallow said.
“Gone are the days when you just sit back and accept empty promises from a government. Now is the time for action and not just talking. And we say that now is the time, and I tell you, and I stand with you, now is the time for us to hold politicians and government accountable.”
He said that by and large the ULP had kept SVG stagnant for the last 25 years.
“… whenever you get brave enough, when you call the elections, we are going to ensure that we vote for a government that is going to represent the people.”
He said that under and NDP government, Vincentians would enjoy “a St. Vincent and the Grenadines that has better and higher-paying jobs.
“You are going to feel safe again because we have Major (St. Clair Leacock, MP for Central Kingstown) that’s going to lead us in crime fighting.”
Shallow said there will be better performances in sports “because we are going to ensure that you have the right tools to improve your skills.
“And importantly, you are going to see and enjoy a prosperous and progressive SVG,” Shallow said.
Shallow is seeking to defeat the ULP’s Carlos James, who won North Leeward by one vote after a contentious recount in the 2020 polls, after his first attempt in 2015 fell short by 12 votes.
NDP see in young people the ‘full potential for the future’ of SVG
Shallow joins the NDP as Opposition Leader Godwin Friday, a lawyer who has been representing the Northern Grenadines since 2001, makes his second bid to lead the NDP back to government.
Friday failed in his first attempt in 2020 to wrest governance from the ULP, which picked up an additional seat to return to office 9-6 even as the NDP won the popular vote for the first time since 1998.
“We see in the young people of this country the full potential for the future of St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” Friday told party supporters at the rally at the eastern entrance to the capital, Kingstown.
He emphasised the Youth Guarantee Pledge that he signed with the party’s youth arm, the Young Democrats, in October 2023.
The pledge is that by the end of our first term of an NDP government, every young person would have the opportunity of a job, or a training programme, or a place or an internship with an employer.
“What we have said is to the young people of this country, we understand that you feel you are locked out of the economy.”
The opposition leader said some people are without even a part-time job up to five years after graduating from community college.
“Those who have dropped out of school for whatever reason, you cannot find work, and nobody in the government seems to give a damn,” Friday said.
“We will work to build an economy to create more opportunities so hopefully you will find work…”
He said the NDP will create a training system with technical and vocational education at a higher level, so that young people can fill available jobs.
Also, an NDP government will create an agency that helps to match young people’s training with the jobs that are available,
“… so that the young people are not left alone to fend for themselves, to listen to somebody telling them along the grapevine that they must go and talk to somebody in an office to try to find a job, and when they show up there, they find out that it’s more than a job they’re going there for,” Friday said.
He said Saturday’s event was the launch of a campaign in which the NDP will present solutions and “not just a recitation of the problems…
“… So, what we will do for the young people, we want you to come with us, to take this opportunity to help to shape the future of this country,” Friday said.
He urged parents and grandparents to encourage the young people, adding that they are struggling to find a place in SVG.
“They want a voice, somebody who listens to them, not just who wines and dines them, who says to them that they are only good for entertainment. They want a government who treats them seriously, and I will do that,” Friday said.
First-time voters disadvantaged by never knowing NDP governance
Speaking earlier, NDP chairman and West Kingstown MP, Daniel Cummings said that SVG has had 25 years of hearing about “forged on the anvil”, “Caribbean civilisation” — two phrases often used by Gonsalves — and “25 years of promises of every kind…
“Tonight, I want to say to the people, the young people of this country who are going to be voting for the first time, you have the disadvantage of never having experienced what a real government is, because you’ve never seen the New Democratic Party in the government of this country,” Cummings said.
He said the opposition leader does not say he would do something because it sounds good.
“It is because we have been looking at the various options facing us and he has given a firm commitment that we in government will do what we say we will do.”
Cummings will be seeking a fourth five-year term as West Kingstown MP.
He said that after a government has been in office for 25 years, one would expect it to be running on its record.
“No wonder these clowns can’t talk about their record, but they’re going to come back with the same fake promises,” Cummings said, adding that Vincentian youth “want jobs, and they want real jobs.
“Dr. Friday and this team is going to do that. The families have suffered long enough, because every day you go to the supermarket, you can take away less and less for the same money; because ever so often, some member of your family is a victim of the worst kind of crimes, especially our women and girls in this country.”
He said an NDP government will deal quickly and effectively with the spate of violence facing the country.