By Earl Bousquet,VP Digital
Copyright thevoiceslu
Saint Lucia’s next General Elections will be very-hot!
Like every Caribbean nation, it has its own elections characteristics, developed over decades by how the country’s been governed by the two major parties that have won most elections since islanders first got the Right to Vote in 1951 (called ‘Adult Suffrage’).
The Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP), led by George F. L. Charles, won all the elections between 1951 and 1964, when John G. M. Compton and other SLP MPs united in a post-election Marriage of Convenience that denied the winning party its right to return to office.
Compton and his cousin (Clive) were SLP candidates up to 1961; and the two Bousquet brothers (Allan and J.M.D.) provided the two swing seats that denied the SLP from taking office despite winning the most seats in the 1964 elections.
Compton and the breakaway Labourites formed the National Labour Movement (NLM), then joined George Mallet’s People’s Progressive Party (PPP) to create the United Workers Party (UWP).
But the second-generation UWP that emerged from the SLP’s bosom (like in many CARICOM nations today) has spent more time fighting to get in and out of office, than delivering on their campaign promises after taking office
In the process, between elections, the electorate (old and new) remains largely split between two major parties, with hardly any place traditionally for victories by third parties or independent candidates, thanks also to traditional family loyalties.
Like everywhere else, the inherited two-party system has divided voters down the political middle, elections results traditionally depending largely on which party can win the undecided voters and/or the ‘middle-ground’, in a system where an opposition party can win the popular vote, yet lose the neck-to-neck electoral race.
In Guyana, the Proportional Representation (PR) system is regional and the number of parliamentary seats per party is determined by the number of votes each win gets overall, divided by the number of seats in the parliament.
Yet, also in Guyana, as seen in 2015, a party can win the most votes and still have one-less seat in the parliament – a position no ruling party can enjoy.
Saint Lucia had an interesting experience in how parties handle one-seat majorities in 1992, when the UWP won a 9-8 victory for the 17-member House of Assembly, but then Prime Minister John Compton found the results too-close for political comfort.
He called a second general election (within 21 days) and got the same result, leading him to convince Neville Cenac – who won the then-opposition SLP’s safest seat (Laborie) — to cross-the-floor.
Cenac was then appointed Foreign Affairs Minister in the new government after his crossing gave the UWP a more-comfortable 10-7 parliamentary majority.
As a result of the Cenac crossing, a popular park in Laborie was renamed ‘Crossover Park’ by villagers, but he would also be appointed Governor General after the UWP won the 2015 elections.
But much of the past is today changing…
Three decades after Cenac’s famous but unpopular crossover, former UWP Leader and Prime Minister Stephenson King won his Castries North seat in 2021 as an independent (as did fellow former UWP Cabinet Minister Richard Frederick) — and both joined the Labour-led Cabinet of Ministers in the nation’s first all-inclusive government.
But both have also been labelled ‘traitors’ by their former colleagues.
King, while addressing SLP Leader and Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre’s 37th Annual Constituency Conference last Sunday, said, however, that he had “absolutely no regret” for having joined the Labour-led Cabinet under Pierre’s leadership.
Saint Lucian voters pointedly demonstrated their selective dexterity at the ballot box in three consecutive elections, returning the same 11-6 margins of victory three times (2006, 2011, 2015) — twice for the UWP and once for the SLP — until 2021, when the SLP won 13-4.
The new parliamentary equation almost immediately became 15-2 after the two independents sided with the Government members.
The UWPs latest response to the SLP’s attraction of UWP support today has been to bring the heavens down on a former UWP parliamentarian who declared his support for his ‘blood brother’, who is a SLP candidate.
Now, the former UWP MP and Cabinet Minister says he’s receiving ‘death threats.’
Same with another prominent UWP spokesperson who honestly applauded a community project in a section of the Prime Minister’s constituency that he frequents, only to be roundly castigated by his party’s leadership and supporters for daring to ‘make the prime minister look good’.
The desperadoes in the UWP are dabbling in everything — from superstition to abuse of IT — for undisguised propaganda deception, promising new packages in old wrapping, to deliver everything it failed to in its last three terms in office.
But while the opposition continues to promise, the government continues to deliver – the latest good news from the prime minister being that Public Servants will get a second consecutive ‘Christmas Bonus’ this year.
And while some in the opposition are spitting in the sky with demands for early elections, the government is preparing for the grand opening of the St. Jude Hospital, while Hewanorra International Airport, the Northern Division Police Headquarters and the Halls of Justice are taking shape.
SLP supporters continue to be very positive about their party’s possibilities of being elected for a second term, as it continues to attract more former UWP leadership members and supporters, never mind the castigations and threats.
Besides, the UWP leadership has suffered many resignations, including by a former Chairman and former candidates unhappy with how the party is being ran.
However, perhaps the best explanation of how the SLPs feel about the effectiveness of their campaign to woo honest UWP supporters willing to cross-the-floor for better with Labour, is what a fervent supporter said after Sunday’s SLP’s Castries East constituency conference.
She said: “The UWP cannot live, because the more they promise what they cannot give, the more we continue to give more – and their supporters are seeing the light more-clearly now!’
