St Vincent opposition party celebrates historic election win | St Vincent and the Grenadines

The New Democratic Party (NDP) in the Caribbean nation of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) is celebrating a historic landslide victory. 14 out of 15 seatsAccording to preliminary results.

The decisive vote was a crushing defeat for the Union Labor Party (ULP), which has been in power since 2001.

Outgoing prime minister Ralph Gonsalves was the only ULP candidate to retain his seat in an election that saw a significant decline in the party’s previous nine-seat majority.

Gonsalves, the Caribbean’s longest-serving prime minister, will hand over the reins to the NDP’s Godwin on Friday.

“It looks like a giant has fallen in Vincy,” regional political analyst Peter Wickham said. he said on facebook It turned out that Gonsalves, a leading climate justice and slavery reparations advocate, would lose the election.

Other governments in the region congratulated the result on Friday. Addressing the devastation wrought by Hurricane Melissa, Jamaican prime minister Andrew Holness called the election “an important moment for the Vincentian people.”

X said: “I wish Dr Friday success as he assumes the responsibility of national leadership and pray for God’s guidance and wisdom in his work ahead. Jamaica values ​​his 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.”

Taiwan’s SVG Ambassador Fiona Fan also congratulated Friday. The NDP had previously proposed cutting ties with Taiwan and reestablishing ties with China. But ending ties with Taipei was not mentioned in this year’s NDP manifesto, and the party was criticized for not clarifying its position on the issue.

Under Gonsalves’ leadership, SVG continued cooperation with Taiwan on infrastructure, education and healthcare. The relationship has yielded benefits such as scholarships, support for the international airport and help building a state-of-the-art hospital.

“Taiwan and Saint Vincent share universal values ​​such as democracy, freedom and human rights,” Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday.

On Friday, a 66-year-old lawyer took over leadership of the NDP in 2016 but has been in parliament since 2001.

His the party promised creating “more and better-paying jobs,” addressing rising crime and violence, and improving health care and infrastructure. It had also pledged to follow other Caribbean countries in allowing individuals to gain citizenship by making significant financial contributions to the economy.

SVG is the only member of the seven-state Organization of Eastern Caribbean States that does not offer citizenship by investment.

Emanuel Quashie, a lecturer in international relations at the University of the West Indies, attributed the defeat to a number of factors. “There was a lot of anti-Ralph sentiment because Ralph was in power for so long. I agree, he did a lot to transform SVG,” he said.

“It got us through the global financial crisis. It got us through the global pandemic. It took us through the La Soufrière volcanic eruption, Hurricane Beryl, and previous climate change episodic events. But I don’t think that’s a concern for a lot of voters either. I also think the messaging from the ULP wasn’t strong enough or convincing enough because I didn’t see them have enough confidence in most of their wins.”

Quashie said the government’s vaccination mandate during the Covid-19 crisis had also had a serious impact on support for the ULP. The order, which required most front-line workers to be jabbed, caused some to lose their jobs.

Gonsalves was hospitalized after being hit in the head with a rock during a demonstration against vaccine mandates in 2021.