(CMC) — St Lucians go to the polls today to elect a new Government with the leaders of the two main political parties seeking both divine intervention and the goodwill of the voters.
Prime Minister Phillip J Pierre, who is leading the St Lucia Labour Party (SLP) into a general election for the second-consecutive occasion, called the poll almost one year ahead of the constitutional deadline and remains confident that the party will maintain or even improve on the 13 seats it won in the July 2021 election.
“St Lucia, tomorrow we make our voices heard. Make a plan to vote. Ensure that you know the location of your polling station. The only way to ensure continued progress for all is to put the X next to the STAR,” the 71-year-old Pierre wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday.
“To the people of St Lucia, thank you for your prayers, your strength, and your unwavering faith throughout my years of service. Every step of this journey has been guided by your support and by God’s grace.
“It is an honour to serve you. We have come this far because we moved forward together. And tomorrow, you decide if we continue this journey we started. Let us hold the line. Let us stand together.
Let us move forward together. May God bless you, and may God bless our beloved St Lucia,” added Pierre.
Not to be outdone, Allen Chastanet, who is leading the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP) into the general election hoping to reverse the thrashing it received at the last general election when he was the then prime minister, is also seeking God’s intervention.As our nation prepares to vote tomorrow, we ask for Your peace, wisdom and protection. Calm every anxious heart, keep every community safe and guide us to choose leaders who will uplift our people,” Chastanet wrote on his Facebook page.
“Bless our election workers, our officers, and every citizen who will cast a vote. Let unity triumph over division, hope over fear and truth over confusion. Lord, watch over St Lucia. May tomorrow bring clarity, calm and a better future for all,” added the former prime minister.
Addressing the last major rally of the party in Choiseul on the south-west of the island on Saturday night, Chastanet, 65, said that he has the right team, “that is going to develop St Lucia and bring you hope once again”.
He said the UWP is hoping to replicate the victories of political parties in the Caribbean where “yellow is the code”.
“Yellow is taking over the Caribbean…we had our sister party in Trinidad and Tobago…bring hope to the Trinidadians and two nights ago, our bothers and sisters in St. Vincent and the Grenadines took down the Comrade [Ralph Gonsalves] himself…and brought victory and they say yellow is the colour,” Chastanet told supporters.Political analyst Rhyesa Joseph told the St Lucia Times that several indicators are likely to influence how citizens cast their ballots.
“Constituency level politics vary throughout the island, and there are different kinds of voters. Some of the considerations include national leadership and governance, parliamentary representation, quality of the opposition candidate and trust and confidence in political affiliation,” Joseph said.
The St Lucia Electoral Department has said that 44 candidates and eight independents have been nominated to contest the elections that political observers acknowledge is a straight fight between the ruling SLP and the UWP.
They note that the husband and wife National Congress Party is not expected to make any inroads into the two seats they are contesting where government ministers Richard Fredericka and Stephenson King are seeking another five-year term as “independent” candidates.
In the July 26, 2021 election, both King, a former prime minister, and Frederick, both former UWP members contested and won the Castries North and Castries Central, respectively, and later threw their support behind the ruling SLP, accepting senior government positions.
But political observers say this time around, they will face a stiffer challenge to hold on to the seats, with King, alone facing four challengers.The elections will be monitored by observer teams from the Caribbean Community (Caricom) and the Organization of American States (OAS).
The St Lucia Electoral Department said that 180,000 have been registered to vote in the election and Chief Elections Officer Herman St Helen said that when the election date was announced on November 9, “we saw a spike in people registering, especially young people.
He said that for this election, the last qualifying date was July 15 and maintains that the election will be free and fair.
In the last general election, where 174, 332 people were registered to vote, the turnout was 89, 049 or 51.47 per cent.
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