KINGSTOWN – When Vincentians go to the polls tomorrow to elect a new government, they will be, according to social commentator Jomo Thomas, voting in “probably the most important election” since the multi-island nation of 110 000 people gained political independence from Britain in 1979.
The polls will be a straight fight between the ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP), which is seeking a third consecutive term in office and the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), even though the small Green Party has nominated candidates in 13 of the 15 seats at stake.
Supervisor of Elections Sylvia Findlay-Scrubb said 101 053 voters were eligible to cast ballots in the election coming nearly four months before the constitutional deadline of March 2011.
She said the Electoral Office was gearing for a “reasonably high turnout” and brushed aside reports of voter irregularities even before the first ballot was cast.
“The Electoral Office has its mechanism for ensuring that persons are [properly] registered,” she said, acknowledging that it had received a complaint from the NDP about the names of 30 people on the voters’ list.
Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves is confident that the ULP will win the election based on its track record from 2001 when it defeated the NDP.
“Overall, the people are far better off today in every material respect than they were in 2001,” Gonsalves said, describing the slate of candidates as the “Dream Team”.
“We are offering, in addition to continuity, change to take our nation to the next, higher level of development,” said the 64-year-old prime minister.
But the NDP, buoyed by its success in the national referendum last year when it got voters to reject plans for a new constitution, said it was prepared to take back the government from Gonsalves and his “social-democratic” administration that has ruined the economy, caused the private sector to shrink, and is too close to left wing countries such as Venezuela, Libya, and Iran.
Economy
But the NDP contends that the country has not really benefited from Gonsalves’ close association with his ALBA “friends”. “First of all, the economy is in a total mess . . . . and we had a referendum just a year ago [when] we reversed entirely the number of votes we got,” said NDP leader Arnhim Eustace, 65, an economist, who headed the last NDP administration.
Thomas also reminded that a “referendum is not an election” and that “these elections may have more far reaching implications”.
“They may decide the life chances, especially of the poor and the youth, for the next generation,” he suggested.
Both parties have released their manifestos, the NDP doing so early last week, outlining several promises ranging from improved health care to better jobs.
The campaign has been overshadowed by acts of violence and Gonsalves shunned an initiative by Eustace to appear at a joint news conference to urge supporters to stop.
Gocool Boodoo, head of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Observer Mission, one of three groups monitoring the poll, said he was confident the election would be free of any major acts of violence.
He told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) his team had raised the matter with Acting Police Commissioner Bertie Pompey, who said they were minor and in most cases unrelated to the campaign.
Both parties have been drawing large crowds to their rallies.
In the 2005 general election, the ULP won 12 of the 15 seats with the NDP taking the remainder.
Polling stations will open at 7.00 a.m. and close ten hours later with the preliminary results expected before midnight.
(CMC)