Staff Writer
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Nov 10, CMC – The leader of the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP), Allen Chastanet, said Monday Prime Minister Phillip J Pierre had no other choice but to call fresh general elections, 11 months before the constitutional deadline.
In a radio and television broadcast on Sunday night, Prime Minister Pierre said that the elections will be held on December 1 and that he had asked Governor General Errol Charles to dissolve the Parliament on Monday. Nomination Day will be November 21.
Pierre, who leads the ruling St. Lucia Labour Party (SLP), said that the last election was on July 26, 2021, and the parliament met in August of that year. He said under the St. Lucia Constitution, the election is constitutionally due “for the latest three months after the first sitting of Parliament, which was held on 12th August 2021.
But Chastanet, 64, who served as prime minister from 2016-2021, said there were other factors that forced Prime Minister Pierre to seek a fresh mandate from the population.
“Clearly, calling this election early is an indication of the failure of his policies and certainly the longer he would have waited to call the election, more and more of the information would have been unravelled,” said Chastanet, who had suffered a 13-4 defeat in the July 2021 general election.
Chastanet, who is due to deliver a broadcast on Monday night, said among the examples of the failed policies of the government are the millions of dollars spent on the St. Jude’s Hospital rehabilitation project in the south of the island.
He said the government had previously indicated that fixing the 80-year-old building would have been minimal, requiring paint and at least EC$30 million (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) to complete.
“But here they are, four and a half years later, and the government has now spent EC$400 million on trying to repair an 80-year-old building, and they cannot finish it. So he is calling the election because he knows it doesn’t matter how long he waits, he cannot finish it, and the longer he goes without finishing it, it is going to how the absurdity and irresponsibility of the decision”.
Chastanet said that the election was being called because the government was required under law to submit to Parliament the latest report regarding the country’s citizenship by investment (CBI) programme through which foreign nationals are granted citizenship of St. Lucia in return for making a substantial investment in the socio-economic development of the country.
He said the report goes back to April 2024 to March this year, adding “we had a sitting of the House recently, he did not lay it, he has now prorogued Parliament, and it means he is no longer required to produce that report.
“That report is a damning report,” Chastanet said, adding it would have shown how many new citizens “which we suspect to be over 36,000 citizens that this government would have given an allocation for, and this report would have shown how many of those persons would have been approved and how much money the government would have collected”.
Chastanet said that the opposition “got a bit of a hint” because a government minister two weeks ago made a public pronouncement that the government had ‘collected EC$240 million.
“The government also called the election early because when they came in the middle of COVID-2021 2021 and the plan we left worked very successfully, and within two years St. Lucia had recovered its GDP (gross domestic product) by 100 per cent and has now exceeded the GDP of 2019.
“But at the same time, the government has substantially increased the amount of debt to the country. They have added almost EC$300 million of new debt annually,” he said, noting that between 2016 and 2019, the country added only EC$300 million in debt.
“They have in four and a half years increased the amount of debt by EC$1.5 billion, and this is why the debt to GDP ratio has not come down,” Chastanet added.
But in his broadcast on Sunday night, Prime Minister Pierre told the nation that since coming the SLP came to office in 2021, the island’s economy has improved significantly with the level of debt in 2024 is 73.5 per cent, a reduction of eight per cent in 2021 with outstanding payable due to local suppliers 79 per cent, a reduction of 39 per cent.
“As of September 2025, outstanding payables are EC$38.9 million (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents), a 700 percent reduction from 2021, “Pierre said, adding that his administration had concluded negotiations with public servants, as well as providing a Christmas bonus.
“Ladies and gentlemen, these statistics clearly show the level of debt inherited by the St. Lucia Labour Party government and the progress made so far. Together, we built an economy that was in decline, we have experienced economic growth and primary surpluses,” Pierre said, adding, “we are steadfast in making St. Lucia a better place.
Chastanet said another reason behind the decision to call the elections early is that the economic performance of the government has “been dismal.
“We have seen a collapse of the agricultural sector, we have seen no increase in manufacturing and tourism, while it recovered …tourism this year has been on a downturn. Cruise ship arrivals have been down to 740,000, hotel arrivals are down almost six per cent for the year, and our biggest market is down by almost 20 per cent.
“I think if the government were forced to present the Parliament in March (next year), it would have shown a dismal performance. So this government was compelled to call this election early, and there is no bravado on their part”.
He said he is confident that the majority of people here will not be fooled by the call of an early election, adding, “We have seen increases in taxation, unprecedented in the history of this country.
“So I think the longer this government would have waited, the more of this information would have been unravelling…and I think there are enough people right now that see through the propaganda of this government and the spin of this government”.
Chastanet said that the UWP remains “very confident” of winning the elections, given that the performance of the government “has been damning.
“So we are feeling very confident, he said, adding that the candidates are very experienced professionals who would be working from the first day in office.
He said if elected, a UWP government would abolish the 2.5 per cent levy, offering also tertiary level education to St. Lucians for free at the Sir Arthur Lewis College here, as well as a mortgage guarantee programme for young people.
CMC/pr/ir/2025