VINCENTIANS go to the polls today to elect a new government.
It will be a straight fight between the ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP) led by Dr Ralph Gonsalves, which is seeking a third consecutive term in office, and the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) led by Arnhim Eustace, even though the small Green Party has nominated candidates in 13 of the 15 seats at stake.
Both parties have been drawing large crowds to their respective rallies and are hoping that this will translate to victory at the polls. In the last general election in 2005, the ULP won 12 of the 15 seats with the NDP taking the remainder.
A record 101 053 people are eligible to cast ballots in the election coming nearly four months before the constitutional deadline of March 2011.
Supervisor of Elections Sylvia Findlay-Scrubb said that the Electoral Office was gearing for a “reasonably high turnout” and has brushed aside reports of voter irregularities even before the first ballot is cast.
Gonsalves, 64, 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,” he said, describing the slate of candidates as the “dream team”.
Noted pollster Peter Wickham also believes Gonsalves will be granted a third term. He said on Saturday that based on its performance in the last election, the NDP was unlikely to achieve the required 5.4 per cent swing to unseat the ULP.
Though he acknowledges there is a definite swing against Gonsalves, his prediction is that the ULP will retake seven seats, the NDP will hold on to the three seats it got in the last poll, while the other five seats, all marginal, are up for grabs.
The NDP however suggest they could bring home the bacon this time around. They have dismissed Wickham’s poll saying “it does not reflect the mood on the ground”.
Eustace, 65, an economist, said 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”.
The party also reminded that a “referendum is not an election” and that “these elections may have more far-reaching implications”.
Eustace told his supporters that the NDP has already secured ten projects that should result in at least 20 000 new jobs on the island over the next two years.
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 their supporters to refrain from engaging in such activities.
But, Gocool Boodoo, head of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Observer Mission, one of three groups that will be monitoring the polls today, said he was confident that the election would be free of any major acts of violence.
Polling stations will open at 7 a.m. and close ten hours later with the preliminary results expected before midnight. (SP/CMC)
