By: Staff Writer
December 2, 2025
St Vincent and the Grenadines has a new governing party led by Dr. Goodwin Friday of the New Democratic Party (NDP) ousting the now former Prime Minister of 24 consecutive years in office, Ralph Gonsalves -also known as Comrade Ralph for his leftwing stance in a landslide sweep leaving the outgoing governing Unity Labour Party (ULP) with just one seat in parliament.
Gonsalves, 79, has served as prime minister of the multi-island Caribbean nation since 2001 and was one of the longest-serving democratically elected leaders in the world.
The NDP captured 14 out of 15 constituency seats, leaving Gonsalves as the only ULP representative in the house. He retained his North/Central Windward seat and will now be the sole ULP member to challenge government policies. Previously, the ULP held nine of the 15 seats.
One significant result of the election was the loss of Gonsalves’s son, Camillo Gonsalves, who had formerly served as Minister of Finance and Economic Planning. Camillo, widely expected to succeed his father as ULP leader, lost his seat.
“It’s a humbling experience; it has never happened to me before, but I am going to do my very best. I am a very quick learner and I am pretty sure we can get up to speed very quickly. The election is behind us now and I want to see this country come together and we put ourselves and our backs to the wheel and quickly work to build St. Vincent and the Grenadines for all of us,” Friday told reporters.
“I am going to do my very best to deliver to the people of the country,” Friday, said in an interview with state-owned NBC radio from. This was not Friday’s first bid at politics. In 2020, he unsuccessfully ran for Parliament. But this time around, he and his party benefitted from a desire for change from voters who were tired and heard his positions on issues regarding the island’s socio-economic development.
For example, Friday supports severing ties with Taiwan in favor of mainland China, and he wants to implement the controversial citizenship by investment, CBI, program. The program allows foreigners to get a passport in exchange for making an investment. Both policies were opposed by Gonsalves, who headed one of the region’s longest, uninterrupted political dynasties.
The change of leadership in the island-nation with an estimated population of just over 100,600 residents, comes amid heightened regional tensions over the U.S. military buildup in the southern Caribbean, off the coast of Venezuela. While the Trump Administration says the operations are targeted at drug traffickers, they have divided regional leaders, some of whom believe the real purpose is to pressure Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to step down.