Luke Browne, a former senator and minister of health, is making a fourth attempt to win East Kingstown for the Unity Labour Party (ULP), saying, “East Kingstown is finally going to come home to Labour.”
East Kingstown has voted for the New Democratic Party (NDP) for the 40 years since it became a constituency.
The incumbent, Fitz Bramble, is making a bid for a second consecutive five-year term as MP, five years after defeating Browne on his third attempt to win the seat for the ULP.
When he lost in 2020, Browne had just completed five years as the minister of health.
Browne delivered his first major speech of the 2025 election campaign on Tuesday, in Richmond Hill, when Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves announced that the general election would be held on Nov. 27.
“In the upcoming term, comrades, when I’m elected as the representative for the people of East Kingstown, I want to play my role as a representative in continuing and expanding the work of the education revolution through all our schools, including the Thomas Saunders Secondary School,” Browne said.
“I look forward to the commencement of the construction of the new building for that school.”
Thomas Saunders Secondary School (TSSS), which opened in 2005 after the ULP administration converted the Richmond Hill Government School into a secondary school and expanded it, has been located in a temporary wooden structure in Arnos Vale since September 2022.
The government has said that TSSS and the Girls’ High School, which has been located in another temporary campus next to TSSS since 2021, will remain there until 2026.
Browne said that under the ULP administration, St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) has made great strides in healthcare.
“And I think that the priority that the government is giving to health care is reflected in the fact that, apart from me, who served as minister of health, we have two most excellent health professionals on the stage here tonight,” Browne said.
He was referring to first-time candidates Hospital Administrator Grace Walters, the party’s candidate for North Windward and Chevonne Stewart, who will represent the ULP in the Southern Grenadines.
“I remember, for instance, when I was health minister and we wanted to introduce 24-hour radiography services at the hospital, these two ladies were instrumental in that, so that we could expand availability and affordability of healthcare,” Browne said.
“When I was minister, we also opened the Modern Medical and Diagnostic Centre in Georgetown.”
He said the facility revolutionised the health situation and took a major hospital to a rural part of SVG.
He said that the government is providing free dialysis services to 71 patients, which would have cost them EC$75,000 each annually.
“The price tag for that is over $5 million because we want to make sure that if your mother or father, if your grandmother or grandfather, or if you yourself, get sick, you have the opportunity to access health services without going through any degree of financial hardship.”
Browne said that in recent times and when he was health minister, the government also opened the Chateaubelair Smart Hospital, Levi Latham Health Centre, Buccament Polyclinic, Mental Health and Rehabilitation Centre.
“We opened a Lewis Punnet Home facility in Kingstown. We opened renovated staff quarters in Union Island, we opened the isolation Centre at Argyle and we opened a COVID-19 testing lab,” Browne said.
“Comrades, from our experience and background, you would know that we are ready to continue the job of leading this country forward.”
He said this is signalled by the opening on Oct. 25 of the new Kingstown Port, to which the government has committed EC$720 million.
“We delivered a facility that is a first-world standard right here in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,” Browne said, adding that SVG has the elements to become a first-world nation by 2040.
“Comrades, I want to let you know that I am fighting on for the future. I am fighting on for the future of our constituency and for the future of St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” Browne said.
“I believe in the power of perseverance. I learned about the importance of perseverance from many great leaders, including our very own comrade political leader,” Browner said, apparently referring to the fact that Gonsalves contested elections for 20 years before winning a seat.
“So, in East Kingstown, we are ready to finish the job of bringing home the seat,” Browne said.
“In East Kingstown, we are ready to campaign in a spirit of unity. In East Kingstown, we are ready to give my sister a good birthday gift by bringing victory to the constituency on election day.
“Comrades, let us be red and ready and let us fight for victory,” he said.
Luke continues to be a wimp regardless of what he does or says.