Prime Minister Godwin Friday says his legal team is “very upbeat and elated” following the conclusion of closing arguments in the election petitions challenging his and Foreign Affairs Minister Dwight Fitzgerald Bramble’s parliamentary seats.
Speaking to reporters outside the High Court in Kingstown on Thursday, Friday said the matter now rests with High Court Judge Justice Gertel Thom, who intends to deliver her ruling in the upcoming law term.
“…Our position has not changed in that we believe in the correctness of our case and the position that we have adopted over the years, and certainly since this petition has been filed, and the arguments that were presented, the evidence that was presented, confirmed, in my view, that position, so we are very upbeat and elated with the way things have gone…” Friday said.
The consolidated petitions were brought by defeated Unity Labour Party (ULP) candidates Augustus ‘Carlos’ Williams and Luke Browne.
Williams and Browne asked the court to invalidate the Nov. 27 general election victories of Friday in the Northern Grenadines and Bramble in East Kingstown. The petitioners contend that both men were disqualified from nomination and election under Section 26(1)(a) of the Constitution because they voluntarily acquired Canadian citizenship, which the petitioners argue constitutes an acknowledgement of allegiance to a foreign power or state.
At the centre of the defence is Section 25 of the Constitution, which outlines qualifications for Commonwealth citizens. Friday maintained that the framers of the Constitution accounted for such status.
Friday said his lawyers argued that point and proved it through their evidence and submissions. While acknowledging that the petitioners presented their own arguments, he insisted those positions do not change the law.
“And to broaden it further, what senior counsel has been recommending, which is that we need to use the talents of all of our diaspora people whether they are here in St. Vincent or they are elsewhere in Canada or in Trinidad or anywhere else, we have to look to bring our talent in,” Friday said.
“As it is now under the present constitution, Mr. Bramble and I, we are eligible to sit in the parliament,” he continued.
Friday, who has represented the Northern Grenadines for 25 years, said voters elevated him to the office of prime minister following the New Democratic Party (NDP) victory in the general election.
“Because they see that we have the best interests of this country at heart. We have been working to bring St Vincent and the Grenadines into the modern age from all of the dereliction that we have seen under the past government, and we will do so after this petition, the decision is done, and execute the mandate that the people of this country has given us,” he said.
Friday added that he wants to return to his office and work rather than sit in court for days.
“I have been here because I respect—I’m a lawyer myself—I respect the jurisdiction of the court, and I’ve come here to do what is necessary to defend the decision that the people of this country took on Nov. 27, 2025, that is to put the New Democratic Party in government and to put me as Prime Minister of this country to be able to deliver on their behalf. So let’s go ahead and get it done,” Friday said.
With SVG having recently celebrated independence and the administration approaching its first anniversary in office, Friday urged Vincentians to rally together.
“We have coming up the…one-year anniversary of this government of the Democratic Party in office, and we have been delivering over the course of this year, and we have a hell of a lot more to deliver as we go forward,” Friday said, adding that nothing will stop his administration from fulfilling the mandate voters gave them.
“Because the people are the ones who spoke and they gave us the mandate to do that, and we are obliged to deliver on that, and that’s what we intend to do,” he said.
Friday highlighted the government’s distribution of national scholarships and exhibitions to 82 recipients—whom officials recognised at a ceremony on Thursday evening—and congratulated them on their achievements.
He tied the court’s eventual ruling to the future of those recipients.
“These are the people that we are fighting for,” Friday said. “These are the people who are the future of this country, and this judgment impinges. It gives them opportunities to be able to think of serving, even though they may go elsewhere to pursue their careers and so forth, and then come back and serve.”