A Searchlight Commemorative Article: ULP tastes first Victory in 2001 General Elections

THE UNITY LABOUR PARTY (ULP), a merger between the St Vincent Labour Party, led by Vincent Beache, and the United People’s Movement, led by Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, got its first taste of victory at the polls in the 2001 general elections with a 12-3 defeat of the New Democratic Party led by Sir James Mitchell. However, this was not the usual route to a general elections victory.

The ULP’s success had its genesis in the 1998 general elections which the incumbent NDP won by a narrow 8-7 margin, but without the popular vote. Opposition politician, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves would have none of it, and, buoyed by vocal opposition and massive public protests against an attempt in 2000 by the government to seek parliamentary approval to significantly increase pensions and gratuity for elected parliamentarians, the ULP ramped up the pressure and the NDP leader caved, resulting in fresh general elections on March 28, 2001.

The ULP, led by Dr. Gonsalves, won a massive 12-3 victory and formed the government. It was the period when labels such as “the greedy bills”, and “the road block revolution” emerged. Settlement of the heightened civil tensions was made when political leaders and those of trade unions and civil society organisations travelled to Grenada for mediated talks, and an agreement emerged known as “the Grand Beach Accord”.