St. Lucian Prime Minister Philip Pierre’s Labour Party (SLP) held its legislative majority on Monday, putting Pierre on course for reelection after a campaign centered on economic management, violent crime and passport sales.
Shortly after 10 p.m. (0200 GMT), official election results showed the social democratic SLP winning at least 14 seats in the small Caribbean island’s 17-seat House of Assembly, matching its current majority with two seats left to be called. The results showed Pierre with 57.1% of the popular vote against conservative opposition leader Allen Chastanet’s 37.3%.
Chastanet preceded Pierre as prime minister of the country of 180,000 people. His conservative opposition United Workers Party (UWP), which held just two seats going into Monday’s vote, had secured one seat as of late Monday evening.
Election observers from the British High Commission praised a well-organized vote on state TV, saying people appeared to be turning out in good numbers and the mood at polling stations had been calm and stable.
During the election, Pierre advocated for stability and cautious economic management, while Chastanet argued that security deteriorated under Pierre’s leadership partly because of more limited U.S. support for local police – restricted on grounds of past human rights abuses under the U.S. Leahy Law. He has called for more transparent auditing of the island’s citizenship-by-investment program.
CBI programs are an important source of tax income for several small island nations in the Eastern Caribbean, but the policy has raised tensions with the U.S. government, which said the programs can be exploited by “nefarious actors” from China or Iran.
Washington this year proposed its own “gold card” visa program to speed the wealthy through its immigration track.
The St. Lucia election follows Thursday’s election in neighboring St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where the opposition snatched almost all the seats, ousting Ralph Gonsalves who had been prime minister for 24 years.
It also comes as the U.S. escalates a military buildup in the Caribbean it says is designed to curb drug trafficking around Venezuela. Authorities in the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago have allowed U.S. vessels to dock in their territory.
Reporting by Sarah Peter in Castries; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Rod Nickel and Kate Mayberry
