KINGSTOWN – Former Prime Minister Arnhim Eustace says he will not be contesting the next general elections.
Eustace, who served also as opposition leader and president of the main opposition, New Democratic Party (NDP), has been the representative for East Kingston since 1998.
Addressing the NDP’s 41st convention rally here on Sunday, Eustace, 74, thanked his constituents for remaining faithful to the NDP, including between 2001 and 2010, when East Kingstown was the only seat in St Vincent – coupled with the two in the Grenadines — which the NDP retained in the 15-member parliament.
He told supporters that his daughter had once told him that it seems that he had a love affair with East Kingstown.
“Well, that’s true. A real love affair because there is no other constituency like East Kingstown . . .” said Eustace, adding “when everybody buckled, East Kingstown stays strong and stands and continues for the New Democratic Party.
“So all I want to do this evening is to thank you, and I will do it again on other occasions, to thank the people of East Kingstown for what they have done for me and for the New Democratic Party. I really mean it. I am not making any joke about that. There is no politics in that,” said Eustace, who used a cane, because of problems with his knees.
“And now, we will go into a new period, but in that new period, I will not be there. I will not be there. I have already told them that I will not run again but I will continue to work for the New Democratic Party.
“On the radio programme, I will still be there and everything, but I will not be a candidate in the next election but I am confident that whoever you put there, they will do the same job and even better than I. So East Kingstown, I thank, you, I thank east Kingstown for what you have done for the New Democratic party.”
While Eustace led the NDP to four consecutive electoral defeats, he has been credited for rebuilding the party that he inherited in October 2000 from its founder, former Prime Minister Sir James Mitchell.
Sir James quit electoral politics in October 2000, at least 16 years after the NDP was voted into office, and after having agreed to early general election after political pressure, in 2000, by the then opposition Unity Labour Party (ULP).
The NDP, which went into the March 2001 general election with a one-seat majority, lost five of those seats to see the ULP voted into office by a 12-3 margin. There was a carbon copy of those results in 2005, but in 2010, the NDP was able to wrest four seats from the ULP, which held on to its one-seat majority in the 2015 election, the results of which the NDP is challenging in court.
In 2017, Godwin Friday, who has been representing the Northern Grenadines since 2001, emerged as the new leader of the party, becoming Opposition Leader after Eustace gave up the posts.
On Sunday, Eustace urged the NDP leadership to maintain the success he enjoyed in East Kingstown.
“Look after East Kingstown you know. Look after East Kingstown. I am serious about it. Serious about it. They have you here, so look after them,” Eustace told Friday, as the two politicians held their hands together.
General elections are constitutionally due by March 2021, but are widely expected by December 2020.
Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, who had said in 2015 that he would not seek another term as prime minister and would have used the current term to groom a successor, has since announced that he will lead the ULP into those polls. (CMC)