Many historic elements as Friday leads NDP to 14-1 victory

Leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) Godwin Friday, 66, led the party to victory in Thursday’s general election, winning 14 of the 15 parliamentary seats.

Preliminary results show that only Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, 79, retained his seat as voters rejected the Unity Labour Party’s (ULP) bid for a sixth consecutive term in office.

This means that Ralph Gonsalves, CARICOM longest-serving head of state, returns to Parliament as the sole elected opposition lawmaker.

The results come even as the ULP candidates had presented Gonsavles as having more energy than any of them, though some of the members of the ULP team were three decades younger than their leader.

As unofficial word of the preliminary results began to circulate, NDP supporters gathered in the streets in various parts of the country.

One of the largest gatherings was outside the party’s headquarters, Democrat House, on Murray’s Road, in Kingstown, where a raucous victory celebration.

There was amplified music, dancing in the streets and the blowing of horns, interspersed by fireworks.

Friday spent most of Thursday in St. Vincent, before travelling to the Northern Grenadine island of Bequia, where he lives, to vote.

He celebrated with constituents there Thursday night before speaking to the nation via the official broadcast on state media, telling the nation that he does not intend to fail as prime minister.

Friday was expected to spend the night in Bequia, which now has the distinction as the only community in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) to have produced two prime ministers.

He was slated to return to the capital at noon on Friday and to be sworn in later that afternoon, along with key members of the new administration.

The outcome of the elections is expected to provide much fodder for analysts and headline writers.

The election took place on Thanksgiving Day, and, having been held on a Thursday, could mean that the opposition leader could be sworn in on a Friday, the same as his surname.

The NDP also created history is several other ways. It is the largest victory of a political party in St. Vincent and the Grenadines since 1989, when the NDP won all 15 seats.

Among the victors were the NDP’s candidate for East St. George, Laverne Gibson-Velox, who defeated Finance Minister Camillo Gonsalves, and Shevern John, who won North Windward on her second attempt — after falling shy by 69 votes in 2020 — defeating first-time candidate, Grace Walters of the ULP.

By their victories, Gibson-Velox and John have become the first women to be elected to Parliament, since Rene Baptiste, of the ULP, in 2001, a feat she repeated in 2005.

Five other women, three from the ULP — including the nation’s first female minister of foreign affairs, former senator Keisal Peter — and two independent candidates, all of whom were making their theirs attempts at the polls, were rejected by the electorate.

Thursday’s defeat raises piercing questions about the future of the ULP, as the finance minister as well as Agriculture Minister Saboto Caesar, who was seeking a fourth term as MP for South Central Windward, were both defeated.

The younger Gonsalves and Caesar have been identified for the second consecutive election as leadership for the future of the party, which contested the election without a deputy leader.

‘resolve ourselves to go forward as one people’

Meanwhile, the prime minister designate, speaking on the state-owned media shortly after midnight, said that he would keep with the tradition and allow Friday to be a public holiday “so that people can come together and recuperate from a long campaign and at the same time celebrate it as well”.

He said there will also be a celebration at Heritage Square, Kingstown later in the day “and share in this common experience and hopefully they can resolve ourselves to go forward as one people.

“The election is behind us now and I want to see this country come together and we put ourselves and our backs to the wheel and quickly work to build St. Vincent and the Grenadines for all of us”.

Friday, who comfortably reatained his Northern Grenadines seat, which he has held since 2001, said “that has been my campaign message and that is what I believe and that is how I intend to govern and tomorrow we start that process”.

He said that the members of the Cabinet will be sworn in “some later date, not too far down the road”.

Friday said he was preempting beign sworn in later on Friday, “because I haven’t contacted the Governor General as yet

“I think the expectation is that will happen sooner rather than later because, you do not want to have a vacuum when it comes to governance and I intend to do so and will notify the Governor General tomorrow morning bright and early and …that can be done tomorrow afternoon”.

Friday said he has not spoken to Gonsalves, saying that he expected him to call and concede and “wish me well,” adding “that’s up to him”.

However, Gonsalves has repeatedly stated since August 2020 that he would not speak to Friday, who he has blamed for an injury that he sustained to the head while walking among people demonstrating against his government in Kingstown. Friday has repeatedly denied any involvement in the incident.

“It’s an awesome responsibility to be prime minister of a country … I am coming to it, there’s a lot of hope, expectation and desire to make a difference and I intend to do so and every opportunity I get to benefit from persons with experience, persons of goodwill, I will do so because it is for the country, but to answer your question, we have not heard from the former prime minister”.

Asked what he was looking forward to most as he assumes the leadership of the government, Friday, an attorney, who is also trained in political science, replied, “we campaigned on certain things … we put forward a platform to the people of this country and we intend to honour that.

“So I want to start immediately to honour my people, we had a 600day plan … But, honestly, what I look forward to most, I really look forward to serving the people of this country and try to make St. Vincent and the Grenadines better”.

He said he has no intention of diminishing or second-guessing anybody’s desire towards public service, adding, “I assume everyone gets into it and they want to do it for the common good.

“Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we do not, sometimes some people do not even try. I am going to try and I am going to do my very best to deliver to the people of the country, the promises that we have made, the commitments we have made to them, but most of all to always have their interest first and from day one that’s what we are going to do.

“I look forward to doing that and we want to use as many different sources of support that we have and the biggest source of that is the people themselves

“It’s a humbling experience; it has never happened to me before but I am going to do my very best. I am a very quick learner and I am pretty sure we can get up to speed very quickly,” Friday said.

“The people have spoken, they have spoken very clearly …and it is a humbling experience,” he said.

Friday will become the seventh head of government in this CARICOM country, and among the successful NDP candidates is the president of Cricket West Indies, Kishore Shallow, who easily defeated the Tourism Minister Carlos James in the North Leeward constituency.

Barbados-based regional political pollster and analyst, Peter Wickham, who was an analyst on the broadcast of the results, said that there had been an average 5% swing away from the ULP, noting also that the party had been experiencing dwindling support since the last two general elections.

In the lead-up to the polls, former NDP chairman, Linton Lewis, urged electors to vote against the party, claiming that there was no love among NDP leaders and that their opinion differed on the same and different things.

Speaking on the broadcast Thursday night, Lewis said the NDP had “skillfully” avoided a number of issues during the campaign, including the breaking relationship with Taiwan in preference to China and the controversial citizenship by investment (CBI) programme, that would allow for foreign investors to receive citizenship of SVG in return for making a substantial investment to its socio-economic development.

“The time for a change is a very powerful slogan, especially when you have been in office for 25 years,” Lewis added.

Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, who in September led his Jamaica Labour Party to an unprecedented third consecutive term in office, extended “warm congratulations” to Friday and the NDP, saying “this is an important moment for the Vincentian people, who have participated in a peaceful and democratic process to shape the future of their nation.

“I wish Dr. Friday every success as he undertakes the responsibility of national leadership, and I pray God’s guidance and wisdom upon him in the work ahead.

“Jamaica values its close friendship with St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and we look forward to strengthening our cooperation as we continue to build a more resilient and prosperous Caribbean region together,” Holness said, adding, ”may this new chapter bring hope, unity, and progress for all Vincentians at home and across the diaspora”.

St. Lucia’s Opposition Leader, Allen Chastanet, who is hoping to win the government in Monday’s general election, also congratulated Friday, saying “this victory is a testament to your perseverance, your integrity and the trust the people have placed in your leadership.

“May your tenure be guided by wisdom, progress and an unwavering commitment to the people you now serve,” he added.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, in a statement, said that she wanted to congratulate the people of SVG, “where a resounding democratic mandate was given to the New Democratic Party and Dr. Godwin Friday.

“I commend the citizens of St. Vincent and the Grenadines for upholding the highest ideals of democracy”.

During the campaign for the election, Prime Minister Gonsalves had criticised the ruling United National Congress (UNC) in Trinidad and Tobago for sending activists and others to campaign alongside the NDP, an accusation Persad-Bissessar denied.

(CMC contributed reporting)