Former Unity Labour Party East Kingstown candidate Luke Browne says he would accept if the court declares him MP for East Kingstown, a seat that he has failed to win in four consecutive general elections.
Browne and the ULP have brought a petition challenging the election of Dwight Fitzgerald Bramble of the ruling New Democratic Party (NDP) as MP for East Kingstown.
Bramble was declared the winner of the seat in the Nov. 27 general election, defeating Browne by 1,001 votes to secure a second five-year term.
It was Browne’s worst performance in his four failed attempts to win East Kingstown.
While Bramble received 172 more votes in 2025 than when he first ran in 2020, Browne received 582 fewer votes, even as 405 fewer votes were cast in 2025 than in 2020.
Browne is asking the court to rule that Bramble was not qualified to be a candidate in the election because he holds Canadian citizenship.
He is petitioning the court to find that Bramble obtained Canadian citizenship by his own act and is, therefore, under acknowledgement of allegiance to a foreign power and disqualified from being an MP in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The ULP’s Carlos Williams has also filed a similar petition against Prime Minister Godwin Friday, who defeated him in the Northern Grenadines on Williams’ second attempt, even as Friday secured a sixth consecutive term.
In the northern Grenadines, the difference between the two candidates is even bigger, with Williams attracting 339 votes compared to Friday’s 2,185, a difference of 1,154.
In an interview on Hot 97 FM on Friday, Browne, a lawyer and former senator and minister of health under the ULP administration, was asked if there would be by-elections should the court rule that Friday and Bramble were not qualified to contest the election.
“There’s a good chance that they will be the automatic seating of Carlos Williams and myself,” Brwone said.
Asked if he would be comfortable with that, Browne responded: “Well, I will be comfortable with the operation of the law.”
He was further asked if he did not think that in such a situation, a by-election should be called.
“Well, like I say, if it were a different scenario, if it were a case where I contested the elections against a judge and then the court found that the judge was ineligible, I will be automatically seated,” he said.
Browne’s argument was premised on the fact that judges are barred from running for election to Parliament.
He said that someone who was not qualified to contest the election in the first place could not be said to have won on polling day.
“… they didn’t win on the day because they really and truly did not get to the day. They weren’t qualified,” Browne said.
He rejected the assertion that he was being technical.
“I’m being correct,” Browne said. “They should not have been on the ballot.”
He said that while Bramble and Friday are Vincentians, not all Vincentians are eligible to run for election to Parliament.
“You’re telling me you would be comfortable representing East Kingstown, even though you know the people didn’t vote for you?” Luke Boyea, one of the show’s hosts, asked Browne.
“Well, a lot of people voted for me,” he said and used an example from the Olympics, saying that if the winner of a race is later found to have broken the rules, the person who came second is declared the winner.
“Even though, without cutting the line, they would have still beat you, you’re going to feel some way about taking the gold medal?” Browne said.
“I’m saying that I’m okay with playing by the rules as they existed on election day,” Browne said, but denied he was saying winning by any means necessary.
“No, no, no, no. This is not by any means necessary. What they are seeking to do is, by any means necessary, change the rules of the game after the fact,” he said of changes to the Constitution that the NDP government plans to bring to Parliament on Tuesday to “clarify” the meaning of “foreign power or state”.
The ULP has accused the NDP government of trying to change the Constitution as an insurance policy in case the court rules against the two NDP MPs.
“I’m saying that there are rules. There is a case which is to test the rules right now, and we will abide by the outcome of that case. I mean, I have abided in the past, by the outcome of elections. I have moved on with my life,” Browne said, but noted his constitutional right to bring the legal challenge.
“… and the point is, if these guys were in the same position, they will be doing exactly what I’m doing right now,” Browne said.
It was suggested to Browne that the court should not decide the outcome of an election.
“No, the people, the people have decided. The people had a right to vote for any of the qualified candidates on election day. It so happens that I was the only qualified candidate in East Kingstown,” Browne said.
NO DAMN SHAME FULLSTOP
Bramble did not run in 2010. Please edit this article!
Cry baby Luke, imagine you trying to get a seat that you cannot win. Four in a row licks!!! Who do you think would accept you? Surely not me. Ralph said people did not vote for you because you were not married. So what happened?