For­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Ken­ny An­tho­ny has an­nounced his de­ci­sion to bow out of ac­tive pol­i­tics, in­di­cat­ing al­so that he will not be a can­di­date for the rul­ing St. Lu­cia Labour Par­ty (SLP) in the 2026 gen­er­al elec­tion.

An­tho­ny, 74, who served as prime min­is­ter from 1997 to 2006 and again from 2011 to 2016, said that he will not be en­dors­ing any can­di­date for the Vieux Fort South con­stituen­cy, which he rep­re­sents in the Par­lia­ment.

He told sup­port­ers at a pub­lic meet­ing in the con­stituen­cy on Wednes­day night that they should first hear the plans and pro­pos­als of the can­di­dates for the con­stituen­cy, “as­sess how they in­ter­act with you, how they ex­press their com­mit­ment to the St. Lu­cia Labour Par­ty and how they will cam­paign to win your con­fi­dence and sup­port.

“As I say to all who ap­proach me, it is ear­ly days and what I have said to you tonight is what I have said to all oth­ers, who have ap­proached me,” he said, dis­tanc­ing him­self from en­dors­ing any suc­ces­sor.

“No one, none of you can ever say that I have asked you to sup­port X or Y can­di­date. No mat­ter what you think about me, what even the can­di­date thinks about me, but none of you can tes­ti­fy that I have asked you to ever sup­port any par­tic­u­lar can­di­date”.

To the tune “By the Rivers of Baby­lon” An­tho­ny, who was a mem­ber of the Guyana-based Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (CARI­COM) sec­re­tari­at from 1995, serv­ing as its gen­er­al coun­sel un­til he was elect­ed leader of the SLP a year lat­er, said he want­ed no mon­u­ments or oth­er ho­n­ours in his name.

“I don’t crave any­body’s good­will, I don’t crave any­body’s apolo­gies. I don’t want those things not at my age, all I want re­al­ly is to ask you to re­mem­ber who I am, what I am,”  said the for­mer lec­tur­er at the Fac­ul­ty of Law at the UWI Cave Hill Cam­pus.

“I re­mind you that I seek no glo­ry from no one. I seek no ho­n­our from you, the peo­ple of St. Lu­cia or my beloved St. Lu­cia Labour Par­ty. All I seek from you my con­stituents is the mem­o­ry of the love that we shared for each oth­er.

“I seek no mon­u­ment, I want no build­ing, no roads, no com­mu­ni­ties named af­ter me.  None! And those of you who do so, who have named roads and com­mu­ni­ties af­ter me, you do so at your own per­il be­cause I have you do not do so.

“I seek no ti­tles, none, none. I do not wish my name to be dec­o­rat­ed and the rea­son why I told you my aca­d­e­m­ic ac­com­plish­ment is next to my po­lit­i­cal ac­com­plish­ment is sim­ple. I want to pro­ceed peace­ful­ly car­ry­ing with me on­ly the aca­d­e­m­ic ti­tle by which you have known me all of these years. I want no more,”  said An­tho­ny, who in re­cent months has served as a mem­ber of the Em­i­nent Per­sons Group (EPG), which con­sists of for­mer prime min­is­ters Bruce Gold­ing of Ja­maica and Per­ry Christie of The Ba­hamas, as the re­gion seeks to deal with the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion in Haiti.

“It is enough that you trust­ed me to rep­re­sent you,” he told the sup­port­ers on Wednes­day night, say­ing “I on­ly want you to re­mem­ber me as a good and de­cent hu­man be­ing”.

Dur­ing his speech, An­tho­ny al­so gave rea­sons why he did not ac­cept a po­si­tion in the cur­rent gov­ern­ment, say­ing that he did not want his pres­ence to over­shad­ow the work of Prime Min­is­ter Phillip J Pierre.

He al­so in­di­cat­ed that his ad­vanc­ing age and health sit­u­a­tion had al­so con­tributed to his de­ci­sion to bow out of ac­tive pol­i­tics.

CAS­TRIES, St. Lu­cia, May 22, CMC

CMC/hs/ir/2025