Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has urged supporters of the ruling Unity Labour Party to “be a warrior in the Labour family from now until the night when the votes count”.
He gave his instruction to the ULP “warriors” on Sunday at the party’s Amazing Grace rally in Rabacca as the campaign for the Nov. 27 general election heats up, telling them to “tek on” opponents of the ULP online.
“It means that every day you get up and every day, after you say your prayers, and I know you have to look after your family, and I know you have to go and work. I know those of you who are not well and you have to stay at home. I want every single day you get up, you ask Almighty God, ‘Please, Lord, help me to be a better warrior in the family of Labour.’
“And anybody who ask you, ‘Why you like this?’ You say, ‘As a warrior in the Labour Party family, a warrior in the Labour family is a righteous struggle. Being a warrior in the Labour family is righteousness. Because the Labour family, working together, we have brought more progress to this country than any government in the history of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”
Gonsalves said that all Labour warriors have a cell phone or some other device.
“You also have to be warriors online and take on the worthless set of people who come on and who want to pull down the Unity Labour Party and the leaders. Tek them on! Tek them on! Tek them on Tek them on!” Gonsalves said.
He said that supporters of the opposition New Democratic Party who are “dreaming” should know that the ULP cannot lose the election because it takes eight of the 15 seats to secure victory.
“… from West Saint George to North Windward, there is not one single seat of these seven that the NDP can come close to winning,” Gonsalves said.
“And Central Leeward, Orlando Brewster is stronger than last time, and he can’t lose down there. And that’s it.”
He said that, added to those eight, the ULP will win the Southern Grenadines for the first time.
“And I want to tell you, warriors of Labour, the warriors of the Labour family, you have the most experienced general for the army of Labour. His name is Comrade Ralph, the six-star general. And I have a lot of lieutenants.”
In 2020, the ULP won West St. George by 360 votes, down from 578 in 2015, while in East St. George, the margin of victory fell to 196, from 607 in 2015.
In South Windward, the party won by 219 votes compared to 759 in 2015, while in South Central Windward, it was 239, even as it was 588 the previous election cycle.
The party maintained its commanding lead in North Central Windward, retaining the seat by 1,983 votes, which was significantly lower than the 2,269 in 2015.
In North Windward, the ULP crossed the line with 69 votes to spare, down from 323 in 2015. And in Central Leeward, the margin of victory was 503, up from 313 in 2015.
Gonsalves did not mention North Leeward, which the ULP won in 2020 by one vote after a contentious recount.
Be vigilant against billboard vandals
He said that as warriors in the Labour family, he wants supporters to be vigilant.
“They’re going about tearing down our posters. They are going down, burning our posters. I am telling you not to do that,” Gonsalves said, adding that the ULP believes in free and fair elections.
“We are a free and democratic people, and we are a proud people, but you have to be vigilant. And where you all see posters for the Unity Labour Party, you all have to have vigil as warriors of the Labour family and make checks from time to time.”
He said the police are conducting mobile patrol, “but you, as warriors in the Labour family, you have to protect the posters of your family. You have to protect the property of your family”.
He said there has not been any statement from anyone in the NDP urging people not to pull down election posters or burn billboards “because Friday is too weak.
“He is too indecisive. He has no creativity. He’s a fake. He’s a fake. He lazy. He weak, he’s indecisive, and he’s a fake,” Gonsalves said of opposition leader Godwin Friday.
“And if he can’t control Molly Don who he pay for, daily, the tough decisions which have to be made in the Office of the Prime Minister, I am telling you that Friday will be found wanting,” he said. Molly Don, a Jamaican artiste, performed at an NDP event in London, Sandy Bay on Oct 18 and sang the lyrics of some raunchy songs even as he said that the NDP President, Godwin Friday, had asked him to keep his act clean.
Gonsalves also urged his Labour warriors to ensure that young people are registered during the special registration period.
“… help them to get their birth certificate, and the candidates could help you, and the constituency councils could help you in that regard, and make sure that they go to the registration centres to get registered and have them vote for Labour,” Gonsalves said.
He accused the NDP of trying to register people from Bequia and North Central Windward in North Windward.
“Keep your eye out for that. And I’ve spoken to all the authorities with this and to tell them that it is a criminal offense to go knowing that you are not living in the particular area, those who do it and those who conspire with those who do it, they are eligible to be brought to the court, and it involves not only a fine, it involves jail time,” Gonsalves said.
He said lawyers working with the NDP are trying to intimidate registering officers.
“I’ve spoken to the supervisor of elections about that,” he said, adding that he had also spoken to the elections chief about what happened in 2020, “when 5, 6, 7, 9, lawyers turn up to be at the count…
“Only one lawyer you can have come there because, if you can have 10, why you can’t have 50? Why you can’t have 100?” Gonsalves said.
“They want to intimidate. And I’ve told the commissioner of police to put arrangements in place, because when the NDP lose again, and this is their last train to San Fernando, they want to create confusion. No confusion will come when the ULP wins again, because if they do that, I will call out the warriors of Labour.” Gonsalves said “foreign” lawyers also have no right to enter polling stations. He said that after the NDP lost the 2015 election, the NDP harassed the supervisor of elections for five years outside her office in Kingstown.
“And I hope the Christian Council hear me, because they monitoring. I hope the Christian Council hear me and talk to them, because we never involve weself in any ah that worthlessness. never, and we will not involve ourself in the worthlessness, but we will defend the integrity of our electoral system so that we have a free and fair election, and when the results come in and they are counted and we form the government, we will not allow any damn foolishness to happen, none at all,” Gonsalves said.
Good advice comrade. One of your supporters was playing she could trick Shallow and onenof your real supporters follow your advice and geh she a buss head in Pito just like you advised. I guess she wanna get a busy head just like you got at the protest in town
The problem is elections under ULP administration are not free and fair. They are full of bribery and vote rigging, even the illegal call to violence that it appears to me Gonsalves just did.
A warrior is a fighting man, and Gonsalves in using that term is trying to intimidate by saying he will bring violence. That is an illegal statement, and he should be interviewed forthwith by the police about it. Of course, we know that will never happen because he is the police. The protion of violence by Gonsalves is a social sin against Vincentians and a crime in every country in the World. If someone from ULP made such a statement, the police would smash their front door down.