By: Staff Writer
July 27, 2021
The St Lucia elections were held on Monday and as predicted, the incumbent United Workers Party (UWP) led by Allen Chastanet was blown away by the opposition St Lucia Labour Part (SLP) led by Philip Pierre.
As it stands now, the SLP holds 13 seats and winning 50.14 percent of the majority vote to the UWP’s two seats and 42.91 percent of the vote. It was so bad that the UWP was losing seats to independent candidates making history in the Caribbean by electing two independent candidates to the 17-member Parliament among them being the former prime minister Stephenson King, who quit the ruling United Workers Party (UWP) to contest the Castries North constituency, which he has been representing for nearly three decades as an independent and the other was Richard Frederick a lawyer and senior politician who won Castries Central.
After the election, outgoing Prime Minister Chastanet called the election loss a “shock” and never expected to lose in such a dramatic and stunning fashion despite having a full slate of candidates and the SLP only having 15 candidates to contest the 1 seat election.
However, political analysts like Peter Wickham, director of Caribbean Development Research Services had predicted the swing towards the SLP days before the election as well as other observers were noticing the voluminous protests in St Lucia against the Chastanet government over the course of the last four years.
Mr Pierre, speaking on Choice TV said that he was “elated” thanking also his supporters in Castries East who ensured that he won the seat for the sixth consecutive occasion, defeating Fortuna Belrose.
“Here we are, we have won the government and I intend to be a government for the entire country. A government of inclusion, a government that will listen to people, a government of tolerance and we are hoping to take this country all the way from the division and conflict it is in now”.
The only two seats the UWP held was Chastanet’s seat in Micoud South and John Bradley Felix in Choiseul.
Former prime minister of St Lucia during the SLP’s 2010-2016 term, Kenny Anthony, was also re-elected to parliament and holds Vieux Fort South.