2025 general election vital to the survival of ULP, NDP

By Kenton X. Chance 

The Nov. 27 general election in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) is especially important for the future of the nation’s two political parties, with a senior member of one of them saying a loss would mean the death of that party.

The incumbent Unity Labour Party (ULP) is seeking an unprecedented sixth consecutive five-year term in office.

Ralph Gonsalves, 79, who became prime minister in 2001, is leading the ULP into the polls for the sixth time since becoming its leader in 1998, four years after the ULP emerged from a union of the St. Vincent Labour Party and the Movement for National Unity. 

The late Sir Vincent Beache, who was MP for North Central Windward from 1974 to 1989 and MP for South Windward from 1994 to 2005, led the ULP for the first four years of its existence. 

Unlike all of the previous elections, the ULP is facing the electorate without a deputy leader, three years after one was to have been elected at its last national convention in July 2022

During that convention, North Windward MP, Montgomery Daniel, then 68, was returned as deputy political leader, amidst what political observers have said was Gonsalves’ inability to get the majority of party members to coalesce around any one individual.

During the convention, some party supporters shouted “Caesar! Caesar!” as Gonsalves entered the auditorium at Campden Park Secondary School.

The development appeared to have rattled the prime minister, who went on stage and appeared to be remonstrating with Caesar. 

Daniel, 71, who has been representing North Windward since 2001, will not be seeking re-election at the upcoming polls.

Traditionally, the ULP MP with the second-longest stint as a parliamentary representative emerged as the party’s deputy political leader and deputy prime minister.

This means that, based on the makeup of the last Parliament — which was dissolved on Tuesday when the general election was announced for Nov. 27 — Minister of Agriculture Saboto Caesar, who is seeking election to a fourth term as MP for South Central Windward, should emerge as deputy leader of the ULP.

However, the issue seems to be that Gonsalves appears to favour his son, Minister of Finance and East St. George MP, Camillo Gonsalves, 53, as his successor. 

Some pundits believe that how the ULP handles the leadership transition, regardless of the outcome of the next polls, and especially if the party is booted out of office, could have a significant impact. 

Analysts have said that no organisation has survived Gonsalves’ leadership, and, pointing to his failure to transition to new leadership 15 years after first promising to do so, means that the ULP could suffer the same fate.  

In fact, Gonsalves is still at the helm of the ULP, although saying in his “LETTER FROM THE POLITICAL LEADER” in the party’s 2020 election manifesto:

“I offer myself to lead our nation again for this last time.”

However, the New Democratic Party (NDP), which has been in opposition since 2001, has spoken to the importance of this year’s polls for its very survival. 

The NDP, which turns 50 in December, was in government from July 26, 1984, to March 28, 2001.

Since its foundation, the party has changed leadership twice — when Arnhim Eustace succeeded Sir James Mitchell in October 2000, followed by Godwin Friday in 2016.

The NDP has seen its political fortune increase since 2001, when it was booted out of office, 12-3 to the ULP.

The electorate returned the same result in 2005, even as Eustace, who was MP for East Kingstown from 1998 to November 2020 and served as prime minister for five months, worked to rebuild the NDP.

In 2010, the NDP won four additional seats when the electorate gave the ULP the thinnest margin of victory. 

The 2015 election results were a carbon copy of 2010 — ULP 8; NDP 7– even as the ULP continued to decline, as evidenced by the popular vote. 

However, both the NDP and the ULP saw improvements in their fortunes in 2020, when the ULP won an additional seat as it secured an unprecedented fifth consecutive five-year term to return to government, 9-6.

The additional seat was North Leeward, which the ULP won by a single vote after a contentious recount, even as the NDP won the popular vote for the first time since 1998.

Incumbent Central Kingstown MP, St. Clair Leacock, 73, an NDP vice-president, highlighted the importance of a 2025 election victory to the NDP while campaigning in Mahaut, Lowmans Hill on Sept. 4.

He traced how the fortunes of the NDP had changed after he and West Kingstown MP, Daniel Cummings, were appointed as NDP senators, before they were elected parliamentary representatives in 2010.

Both Leacock and Cummings lost at their first outings at the polls in 2005, with Leacock being defeated by 16 votes and Cummings by 35. 

“And I’ll make a prediction tonight, granted that it will not happen, because you, the people in Mahaut will see to that,” Leacock said.

“But believe me, … make that mistake and put Ralph back into government, he will make himself an executive president of this country, and will ride roughshod over the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. 

“Because let’s face the reality, if the ULP goes back into office, NDP gone; it wash out. I call a spade a spade. … Camillo would have achieved what he set out to do, ‘NDP must suffer and die’; forget about the ‘politically’ that he added after that.”

Leacock said an important role in the 2025 election “is whether we want in St. Vincent and the Grenadines that our democracy survives.

“That that thing which we got in 1951 for grandparents and parents to be able to participate and have a say here, whether that will continue,” he said, referring to adult suffrage.

Despite the prime minister’s age, the ULP has presented him as their best choice if they are to win another term in office.

This is even though the party boasts that three of its candidates — 20% of the slate — are national scholars – representing, as the finance minister noted, “the brightest brains that we’ve produced in St. Vincent and the Grenadines”.

In that Oct. 19 speech in Calliaqua, the younger Gonsalves pointed out that 20% of the NDP’s slate is older than 70 years old and one-half is over the age of 60. 

“They are the oldest, least-experienced party anywhere in the entire Caribbean, a whole set of old people who talking, but ain’t know how to do what they talking about,” the finance minister said, noting that none of the NDP’s candidates have ever served in government. 

He said the ULP had “the right mix of youthful energy”, adding that 20% of the ULP team is under 40 (Keisal Peters, Orando Brewster and Darron Rodan John). 

“We have the young people. We have the middle-aged people, and we have the greatest prime minister ever in the entire Caribbean, in Dr. the Honourable Ralph Gonsalves.”

The 53-year-old finance minister was speaking one month after bringing the issue of age and vigour in politics in sharper focus when he said that his father, who is 26 years his senior, “still ha’ more energy than all ah we”.

Camillo Gonsalves’ comments echoed a statement that his father often makes, that he has “the youngest brain” in his Cabinet, whose youngest members are in their mid-30s.

NDP candidates were quick to latch onto the comment during their campaign, with Conroy Huggins, the party’s Central Leeward candidate, noting the age difference between the prime minister and the finance and agriculture ministers. 

“And they’re trying to say them ah future leaders, and they are saying they can’t keep up with the old man. Could you imagine how them could come leader for this country? None of them nah ha’ energy,” said Huggins, a first-time candidate. 

East Kingstown MP, Fitz Bramble, also commented on the matter, saying, “…you have the heir to the throne on the other side telling you that his 79-year-old daddy fitter than all of them put together. 

“… So if his son is telling you that his 79-year-old papa fitter than all of them, what is he saying to you? Don’t vote for them. They don’t have the energy,” said Bramble, who is seeking a second term in office.