Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les, and sev­er­al re­gion­al lead­ers all con­grat­u­lat­ed Dr God­win El­liot Lo­raine Fri­day on his elec­tion as Prime Min­is­ter of St Vin­cent and the Grenadines.

Beck­les and the oth­er re­gion­al lead­ers al­so com­mend­ed out­go­ing Prime Min­is­ter Dr Ralph Gon­salves, whose Uni­ty Labour Par­ty (ULP) was de­feat­ed by Fri­day’s New De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty (NDP), end­ing 24 years of op­po­si­tion and re­turn­ing the NDP to pow­er.

The NDP cap­tured 14 of the 15 seats in Thurs­day’s gen­er­al elec­tion. Gon­salves, whose par­ty had gov­erned since 2001, lost his bid for a his­toric sev­enth term but re­tained his seat. Gon­salves’ par­ty post­ed on Face­book: “We love you, SVG, and we’ll keep work­ing and ad­vo­cat­ing for you.”

Prime Min­is­ter

Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar:

“I con­grat­u­late the peo­ple of Saint Vin­cent and the Grenadines on a suc­cess­ful gen­er­al elec­tion, where a re­sound­ing de­mo­c­ra­t­ic man­date was giv­en to the New De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty (NDP) and Dr God­win Fri­day, the Prime Min­is­ter-Elect. I com­mend the cit­i­zens of Saint Vin­cent for up­hold­ing the high­est ideals of democ­ra­cy. May God bless the new­ly elect­ed gov­ern­ment as they be­gin this new chap­ter of ser­vice to the peo­ple of Saint Vin­cent.”

Op­po­si­tion Leader

Pen­ne­lope Beck­les:

“This out­come re­flects the will of the peo­ple and af­firms that democ­ra­cy re­mains vi­brant and strong in our re­gion. We wel­come Dr Fri­day’s elec­tion and look for­ward to en­gag­ing with his ad­min­is­tra­tion in the true spir­it of Cari­com and in the in­ter­est of na­tion­al and re­gion­al de­vel­op­ment. We al­so ac­knowl­edge the fourth Prime Min­is­ter of Saint Vin­cent and the Grenadines, the Ho­n­ourable Dr Ralph Gon­salves, for his dis­tin­guished ser­vice to his coun­try and Cari­com.”

Bar­ba­dos Prime Min­is­ter

Mia Mot­t­ley:

“The peo­ple of Saint Vin­cent and the Grenadines have ex­er­cised their de­mo­c­ra­t­ic right. Bar­ba­dos looks for­ward to work­ing with you and your gov­ern­ment to deep­en co­op­er­a­tion be­tween our two na­tions and to build a more sta­ble and unit­ed re­gion. I’d al­so like to thank Dr Ralph Gon­salves for his con­tri­bu­tions to the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty over the past 24 years.”

Guyana Pres­i­dent Ir­faan Ali:

“I wish Dr God­win Fri­day and his par­ty a suc­cess­ful tenure in of­fice. I look for­ward to work­ing close­ly with the Prime Min­is­ter-Elect to deep­en bi­lat­er­al co­op­er­a­tion be­tween Guyana and St Vin­cent and the Grenadines and to ad­vanc­ing re­gion­al­ism. I al­so take this op­por­tu­ni­ty to ex­press Guyana’s sin­cere ap­pre­ci­a­tion to out­go­ing Prime Min­is­ter Dr Ralph Gon­salves. His long and ded­i­cat­ed ser­vice to the peo­ple of St Vin­cent and the Grenadines and to Caribbean re­gion­al­ism has earned him re­spect across our Com­mu­ni­ty.”

Do­mini­ca Prime Min­is­ter Roo­sevelt Sker­rit:

“I wish the Prime Min­is­ter-Elect and his team every suc­cess as they as­sume this im­por­tant man­date of lead­er­ship and ser­vice to the peo­ple of St. Vin­cent and the Grenadines. I ex­tend sin­cere ap­pre­ci­a­tion to Ho­n­ourable Dr Ralph Gon­salves for his decades of ded­i­cat­ed ser­vice to St Vin­cent and the Grenadines and to our re­gion. Though Thurs­day’s elec­tion did not favour him, Dr Gon­salves leaves the of­fice of Prime Min­is­ter with a record of steady lead­er­ship and bold ad­vo­ca­cy for small is­land states.

St Kitts & Nevis Prime Min­is­ter Ter­rence Drew:

“I com­mend the peo­ple of SVG for an or­der­ly elec­tion process, a clear re­flec­tion that democ­ra­cy re­mains strong across our Caribbean re­gion. I al­so ac­knowl­edge the ser­vice of out­go­ing Prime Min­is­ter Dr Ralph Gon­salves, whose lead­er­ship across more than two decades has shaped the mod­ern sto­ry of Saint Vin­cent and the Grenadines and con­tributed to re­gion­al di­a­logue and co­op­er­a­tion. St Kitts and Nevis looks for­ward to con­tin­ued part­ner­ship with the gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of SVG as we col­lec­tive­ly pur­sue progress for our is­lands, the OECS, and Cari­com.”

Ja­maica Prime Min­is­ter An­drew Hol­ness:

“Dr Fri­day’s elec­tion sig­ni­fies a new chap­ter for the Vin­cent­ian peo­ple, and Ja­maica stands in sol­i­dar­i­ty with our Caribbean neigh­bour at this im­por­tant mo­ment. I look for­ward to work­ing with Prime Min­is­ter Fri­day as we con­tin­ue to ad­vance re­gion­al co­op­er­a­tion and cre­ate greater op­por­tu­ni­ties for our cit­i­zens. I com­mend Dr Ralph Gon­salves for his long and ded­i­cat­ed ser­vice to the peo­ple of St Vin­cent and the Grenadines and to the Caribbean re­gion.

Grena­da Prime Min­is­ter Dick­on Mitchell:

“This land­mark vic­to­ry rep­re­sents a sig­nif­i­cant mo­ment for the peo­ple of St Vin­cent and the Grenadines and un­der­scores their com­mit­ment to de­mo­c­ra­t­ic prin­ci­ples. Grena­da looks for­ward to work­ing close­ly with Prime Min­is­ter Fri­day and his ad­min­is­tra­tion .

For­mer T&T PM

Dr Kei­th Row­ley

“Mr Gon­salves’ jour­ney has been one of vi­sion, re­silience, and un­wa­ver­ing de­vo­tion to the peo­ple of SVG. He has been a stead­fast cham­pi­on of Caribbean uni­ty, a de­fend­er of democ­ra­cy, and a states­man whose in­flu­ence will con­tin­ue to shape the fu­ture of our re­gion. Well done, good and faith­ful ser­vant leader”, 25 years is a shin­ing badge of ho­n­our”. I wish all my Vin­cent­ian broth­ers and sis­ters a safe and pro­gres­sive jour­ney un­der new lead­er­ship.”