A magnificent victory for the Unity Labour Party

23.DEC.10

Editor: Despite the narrow 8/7 margin in the just concluded General Elections in St Vincent and the Grenadines, the Unity Labour Party must be commended and congratulated for a magnificent victory. I say a magnificent victory because of what the leader and party came up against.{{more}}

First, asking the electorate to return a government to office for a third consecutive term in the Caribbean is a difficult task. Only a few governments were able to do so, and in SVG, only one party has done it. It was a huge hurdle the ULP had to ride over.

Second, the ULP were on the back foot after the defeat in the 2009 referendum. The NDP claimed victory in the referendum and so boasted that they had already won the elections and all they were waiting for was for the PM to give the date for the elections. Third, Dr Ralph Gonsalves had to battle and overcome a barrage of deliberate lies, slander and down right nastiness dealt to him and his government by the NDP over the past ten years.

Fourth, a well funded international company from the United Kingdom was brought in by Mr. Eustace, James Mitchell and the NDP to bend the minds of our people. These people on their Website boasted that they use the tactics of Hitler to get people to vote in their favour. Thank God SCL tactics did not work. Our people have better sense than to be tricked by Eustace, NDP, Sir James and SCL.Our passport has been protected.

Finally, the ULP had to fight off James Mitchell who thinks this country belongs to him; Jerry George with his biased TV programme; the News newspaper; Junior Bacchus and Matthew Thomas on the worst radio talk show in SVG and many others.

It is under these conditions and more that the ULP was able to fight, stay afloat, complete the twelve rounds and at the end raise their hands in triumph; a magnificent victory indeed.

The Comrade’s forty something years in politics have served him well. It is my opinion that the Comrade has nothing else to prove. I urge the Comrade and his colleagues to get to work and continue to do the people’s business. I have no doubt that you will review what went wrong and come up with solutions that will make the government and the party stronger over the next five years.

Congratulations are also in order for the NDP for gaining four seats. But the important thing is that they are still in the opposition. They were not ready to govern this country and they will not be ready for a very long time. If the NDP is to win government, they will need a new leader.

Mr. Eustace has now lost three consecutive elections as the leader of the party, and when the next elections are called, he will be around 70 years old. The electorate is not going to elect a person to start his prime ministership at that age.

Mr. Eustace who portraits himself as honest and truthful said during the election campaign that if he did not win government he would resign. Did you really mean that, Mr. Eustace? Well, you have lost. We will listen and watch to see if you were lying to us or not.

Seasons greetings to all Vincentians, and Gods’ blessings for the New Year.

O.C.Robinson