SVG Prime Minister Gonsalves Tells Supporters Prepare For Election

KINGSTOWN, St.  Vincent – Prime Minister Dr.  Ralph Gonsalves has told supporters of the ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP) to prepare for the general elections widely expected this year, ahead of the February 2026 constitutional deadline.

Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves telling supporters of the ruing Unity Labour Party (ULP) to be prepared for general elections (CMC Photo)Echoing the Bible’s description of the coming of Christ, Gonsalves, who over the last weekend was selected as the party’s candidate to contest the North Central Windward constituency, said “the elections which are before us, I want you to listen carefully, because in the twinkling of an eye, the election trump shall sound in the same way that the Apostle Paul, servant of the Lord, said on the final moment when the trumpet shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise and those who are here will be wrapped up.

“But on the earth, there’s an election trumpet will sound and the Constitution of St. Vincent and the Grenadines accords me the right and the responsibility and the authority to advise the Governor General when Parliament must be dissolved, and elections are to be called,” he added.

He told supporters that the trumpet “is not sounding tonight, but it shall come in the twinkling of an eye and be ready and be together in solidarity”.

Gonsalves, who  celebrated his 79th birthday last  Friday and is one of the longest serving head of government in the Caribbean, told party supporters in Colonarie, a town in  the east of the island, that people consider three things when casting their ballots.

“They vote about the record of the party and the nature of the party and how it has served you. It votes on leadership and it votes on candidates,” he said, adding, “mixed up with all of that, policies and programmes and achievements.”

He said that from his vantage point as prime minister for nearly 25 years, “you cannot elect anybody who is weak, who is lazy, and who is indecisive.

“And Friday is lazy, he’s weak and he’s indecisive; he can’t make decisions,” Gonsalves said in reference to the Opposition Leader and head of  the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), Dr. Godwin Friday.

Gonsalves noted that Friday told Parliament on July 27 that whether or not to grant Vincentian citizenship to the surviving members of the 1975 West Indies men’s cricket team was the most difficult and agonising political decision he has had to make.

“Imagine that! Of all the difficult decisions, that is the most difficult and agonising. When I heard him talk, I say, ‘Well, people next to him going sap him with Alcolado and Limacol and anybody who close to him going say, ‘Call the doctor to give him tablet’ because he can’t sleep over to decide whether Clive Lloyd and his legend should get citizenship?

“That alone will tell you that indecisiveness makes him unfit, weak and lazy,” Gonsalves said.

The Prime Minister told  supporters that  during his nearly 25 years in government, he has had many strong personalities in Cabinet, but none of them ever resigned nor has he fired any of them.

“The reason being, this party is organised, it’s united, and we sing from the same hymn sheet. Can you imagine the disaster which will befall this country if you have a weak, indecisive and lazy man as prime minister?”

He said that Vincentians take political stability for granted.

“The political stability which you take for granted will be no more. And every Monday morning, you’ll have Cummings and Leacock fighting one another, and Bruce and Bramble and Friday, they will have so much confusion that nobody will have any time to properly look after the interest of the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” Gonsalves  said, referring to members of the opposition.

Gonsalves said there were some Labour supporters who assumed that the party had already won, while others said they are not voting for other reasons.

“But in the same house, all your children gone secondary school, they gone community college and they gone university,” the prime minister said.

“You got Modern Medical (Diagnostic Centre) in Georgetown, which takes of you, but you’re worried about the fascia board? The fascia board will get fixed.

“If you do not go to the polls. That’s the only way that the Labour Party will not win the election,” said Gonsalves, who is leading the ULP as it bids for an unprecedented  sixth consecutive term in office.

“Therefore, from today, you have to resolve that you go to the polls, and if you have any dissatisfaction, measure it against your satisfactions, and say there’s only one choice: the Unity Labour Party; one single choice to carry us forward in progress, in prosperity, in inclusiveness, inequality, insecurity and no lazy man, no indecisive man, no weak man can ever lead; never ever lead,” Gonsalves added.