KINGSTOWN, St Vincent (CMC) – Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has signalled that elections could be held ahead of the 2015 constitutional deadline and told party supporters yesterday to be “on your marks”.
Speaking at the 20th annual convention of the Unity Labour Party (ULP), party chairman, Edwin Snagg, suggested that there could be snap elections as the ULP seeks a fourth consecutive term in office.
Snagg said that while, traditionally, a race begins with “on your mark, get set, go”, ULP supporters could hear “On your marks, go!”
But Gonsalves, the political leader of the ULP, gave only the “on your marks” order as he addressed the convention at the Campden Park Secondary School.
He spoke about his party’s accomplishment since coming to office in 2001, and its vision for a fourth term, but also spent much of his two-hour address saying why he thinks the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), which holds seven of the 15 seats in Parliament, was not fit to govern the country.
The Prime Minister said Opposition Leader, Arnhim Eustace, who is embroiled in a saga over severance pay for his former secretary, Rishatha Nichols, whom he fired last year, cannot manage his office, which has a staff of three, much less the country.
Gonsalves also spoke of the rift between Eustace and NDP founder, former prime minister, James Mitchell.
Eustace has been at the helm of the NDP when it lost the 2001, 2005, and 2010 general elections, and Mitchell has publicly criticized his leadership and has called for him to step down as head of the NDP.
