Electoral History for North Leeward 1951-1984

There were 8 constituencies and the whole of the Leeward side of the Island north of South Leeward was one constituency. Victory by the Workers Union in this first election under Adult Suffrage led to the renaming of the party as the Eight Army of Liberation, having won all 8 seats.

The Eight Army of Liberation which had swept to power in 1951 was split. Coming out of the split Joshua had formed his own party. The others, including the remaining members of the Eight Army and members of McIntosh’s Workingmen’s Association ran as independents.

Two new parties entered the political arena. The St. Vincent Labour Party that was formed in 1955 with O.D Brisbane as President and Milton Cato as Political Leader. The Peoples Liberation Movement was formed in 1957 with Herman Young as Leader and George Charles as Deputy Leader. Edgerton Richards was made Vice Chairman. Of note is that Edmund Joachim who ran for the PPP in 1954 moved to the St. Vincent Labour Party.

North Leeward was the centre of some controversy shortly after the elections. Slater the winning candidate by a margin of 4 votes decided to throw in his lot with the Labour Party, anticipating a Labour win in the next election. Elections were held shortly after on 19 May 1967.

With Slater’s defection Alphonso Dennie, a Primary School principal was selected to contest North Leeward on behalf of the PPP.

The 1972 elections were the first after St. Vincent was granted Statehood. The state was divided into 13 constituencies and the voting age was reduced to 18 years. Central Leeward emerged out of North Leeward.

Four parties contested the 1979 elections. The New Democratic Party led by James Mitchell and the UPM which was a grouping of ‘leftist’ parties. Calder Williams secured victory for the NDP in North Leeward. James Mitchell had given up his Grenadines seat and challenged Joshua in South Central Windward, both of them losing to the SVLP’s Offord Morris. Cosmos Cozier contested the Grenadines seat for the NDP. James Mitchell recaptured the Grenadines seat on 23 June 1980 after the resignation of Cozier, obviously by an arrangement made before.

A split with the leadership of the NDP over Calder Williams’ place on the Opposition Bench led to his linking up with Russell’s Peoples Democratic Party. This might well have cost the NDP the North Leeward seat. 1984 marked a change in the political landscape of the country. (To be continued)

• Dr Adrian Fraser is a social commentator and historian