PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Prime Minister Stephenson King is predicting that his ruling United Workers Party (UWP) will win 14 of the 17 seats in the general elections here on Monday.
King told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that he was “very confident” that the electorate would return his party for a second consecutive term in office.
“I think we have done our work, today is really the execution of the operations…to be able to put in place into action the preparatory work that was done leading up to the Election Day.
“We have been predicting all along throughout the campaign and that prediction has not changed, a 14-3 is likely and if we get anything more we will accept it but you in government I believe you need opposition and therefore I will not predict a 17 zero as some people may have predicted.
“I think a 14-3 is likely,” he told CMC, after casting his ballot at the La Clery Government School in the heart of his Castries North constituency.
King said that while he would be disappointed if the party did not gain the 14-3 victory “the will of the people is the will of God and I go by that basic principle”.
In the last general election in 2006, the UWP won 11 of the 17 seats with the remainder going to the main opposition St. Lucia Labour Party (SLP).
SLP leader Dr. Kenny Anthony told reporters that he remained “cautious” about the outcome, but believed that his party had done enough to win back the government it lost in 2006.
However, King told reporters that for the past five years the work of his administration has had “a very heavy emphasis at the constituency level and so we believe that will pay off.
“At the same time we have performed admirably at the national level and we think that in itself has its own impact. Thirdly we have done a lot of preparatory work leading to the election and that is throughout the campaign.”
King also disputed an allegation by Ubaldus Raymond, the SLP candidate for the Castries North seat, who told reporters that the prime minister had shoved his hands in his face during a confrontation at one of the polling stations.
“That is lie, a blatant lie and as a Christian I would hope that he did not say so because it would expose his own Christian beliefs.
“I was very forceful about the positions I held that the candidate while he has the authority to make an objection on polling day he also has the liberty of being able to visit the polling station, but he does not have the authority to direct police officers in the polling station to evict individuals who he thinks are operatives of his opponents out of the polling station.
“That is the responsibility of the presiding officer. Only the presiding officer can issue such an instruction o the police,” he added.
