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Voters in St Vincent and the Grenadines will go to the polls on Thursday with Ralph Gonsalves seeking a record sixth consecutive term as prime minister.
The elections are expected to be a tight contest between the ruling Unity Labour party, which has been in power since 2001, and the opposition New Democratic party.In the last election, ULP won nine of 15 seats, but the NDP won the popular vote.
The ULP has been campaigning on the party’s economic development record. According to a recent World Bank assessment, economic growth is expected to remain “robust at 4% in 2025”. The report said that “despite multiple shocks in recent years, economic activity recovered and remained strong in 2025, supported by tourism and infrastructure investment”.
In the past decade, the country has suffered setbacks such as the pandemic, the La Soufrière volcanic eruption of 2021 and catastrophic storms such as Hurricane Beryl, which devastated the archipelago last year.
Gonsalves has presided over the building of the country’s first international airport, facilitating a tourism boom that has drawn hotel brands such as Sandals and Holiday Inn.
The prime minister has been a global champion of climate justice and slavery reparations. He has also prioritised education, allowing people who would not otherwise be able to afford university to get undergraduate and postgraduate degrees through scholarships.
But the opposition has accused the ruling party of “failure and broken promises”, citing the rising cost of living and unemployment, especially among young people.
The NDP has promised more and better-paid jobs, to address rising crime and violence and to improve healthcare and infrastructure. The opposition has also pledged to follow other Caribbean countries in introducing a programme to allow individuals to gain citizenship through significant financial contributions to the economy.
St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) is the only member of the six-state Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States not to offer citizenship by investment.
Supporters of his party have questioned Gonsalves’ leadership, said Adrian Fraser, a historian and former head of the University of the West Indies’ global campus in SVG.
He added: “You have the leader of that party who is 79. Next year, he would be 80. So there are people who are calling for a change and who are wondering why the leader, the prime minister, would want to continue at this age.”
The NDP is led by Godwin Friday who took the reins in 2016 and has been in parliament since 2001.
Some of the party’s campaigning focused on the government’s vaccine mandate during the pandemic, which required most frontline workers to be jabbed and resulted in some losing their jobs.
In 2021, Gonsalves was taken to hospital after being hit in the head with a stone in a demonstration against the mandate.
During this year’s election campaign, questions have surfaced over whether an NDP government would end close diplomatic ties with Taiwan to pursue a relationship with China.
The NDP said in 2016 it would align itself to Beijing and adopt a “one China” policy, which is the diplomatic acknowledgement of Beijing’s position that there is only one Chinese government and Taiwan is a breakaway province.
Under Gonsalves’ leadership, SVG has continued to cooperate with Taiwan over infrastructure, education and healthcare. The relationship has yielded benefits such as the scholarships, support for the international airport and help with the construction of a state-of-the-art hospital.
The latest NDP manifesto does not specify a position on Taiwan. It speaks about “reviewing … international partnerships” but also about broadening and deepening relations with other countries, while only mentioning the UK.
Emanuel Quashie, an international relations lecturer at the University of the West Indies, said the NDP should have clarified its position, considering it had once proposed a switch to China.
“Switching from Taiwan to China just like that would have serious, not just political, but economic implications for SVG … not least the students who are currently studying in Taiwan and some of the projects that Taiwan is currently funding … such as the modern hospital that we are building,” Quashie said.
