General elections were held in

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Saint Vincent and the Grenadines () is an island country in the Caribbean. It is located in the southeast Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, which lie in the West Indies at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea w ...

on 9 December 2015. The result was a victory for the

Unity Labour Party The Unity Labour Party (ULP) is a democratic socialist political party in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Currently the governing party, it is led by Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves.

, which retained its one seat majority. However, the NDP has challenged the results in two constituencies, North Windward, and Central Leeward.

Electoral system

The 15 elected members of the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible gove ...

were elected in single-member constituencies using the

first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

system.

Campaign

A total of 43 candidates contested the elections. The two biggest parties were the incumbent Unity Labor Party of Prime Minister

Ralph Gonsalves Ralph Everard Gonsalves (born 8 August 1946) is a Vincentian politician. He is currently the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and leader of the Unity Labour Party (ULP).

and the opposition New Democratic Party of

Arnhim Eustace Arnhim Ulric Eustace (born 5 October 1944) is a Vincentian retired politician and economist. He served as the third Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and is the former Leader of the Opposition and former president of the Ne ...

, both of which ran candidates in all the 15 constituencies. Smaller parties included the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

and the Democratic Republican Party, who only competed in seven and six constituencies respectively. As 11,902 registered voters were first-time voters, both major parties looked to woo young voters. Gonsalves emphasised the importance of the youth as "solutions to the problem of our civilisation" rather than "problems to be solved." Eustace announced initiatives aimed at decreasing unemployment, including "proposals for youth, sports, and culture."St. Vincent and Grenadines holds parliamentary elections
Xinhua, 10 December 2015

Marginal seats

Conduct

The

OAS OAS or Oas may refer to: Chemistry * O-Acetylserine, amino-acid involved in cysteine synthesis Computers * Open-Architecture-System, the main user interface of Wersi musical keyboards * OpenAPI Specification (originally Swagger Specification) ...

sent an observer team. There were 227 polling stations, which opened between 07:00 and 17:00.

Results

Elected MPs

Reactions

In reaction to the win Gonsalves said: "I am humbled and honoured that the people of St Vincent and the Grenadines embraced our bold vision for the future and rejected the politics of hate," he also called for national unity to address developmental challenges. However he added that there were issues in the constituencies of North Leeward and South Leeward and "we are also calling for an immediate recount to ensure that all the votes are counted in those constituencies. There are more rejected ballots than the margin and those ballots should be examined closely to determine the intent of the voters." The NDP refused to concede the defeat according to inconsistencies in the Central Leeward constituency. A party statement read: "We of the New Democratic Party are confident that we have won the general elections based on figures received by our various polling agents. Our figures show that we won the Central Leeward seat by six votes, which means that we won the general elections by eight seats to seven."Unity Labor Party wins St. Vincent and Grenadines parliamentary elections
Xinhua, 11 December 2015 Leader of the opposition Arnhim Eustace, who won his seat against ULP candidate Luke Brown by fewer than 50 votes, added that there were many irregularities took place in his constituency of East Kingstown, including "illegal voting, and contradictory voters list to agents."Ruling party wins historic fourth term in St Vincent and the Grenadines
WINN FM, 10 December 2015

References

{{Saint Vincent and the Grenadines elections Saint Vincent 2015 elections in the Caribbean Elections in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines