{"id":411373,"date":"2025-11-28T21:04:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T21:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/411373\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T21:04:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T21:04:11","slug":"one-of-worlds-longest-serving-democratic-leaders-loses-election-in-st-vincent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/411373\/","title":{"rendered":"One of world’s longest serving democratic leaders loses election in St. Vincent"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) \u2014 St. Vincent and the Grenadines<\/a> is preparing to welcome a new prime minister for the first time in 24 years after preliminary election results show that Godwin Friday of the New Democratic Party beat Ralph Gonsalves<\/a> of the Unity Labor Party.<\/p>\n

Gonsalves was first elected in March 2001, making him one of the world\u2019s longest serving democratic leaders in recent history.<\/p>\n

He was a staunch supporter of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> and Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gonsalves\u2019 party posted a brief statement on Facebook following Thursday\u2019s election: \u201cWe love you, SVG, and we will keep working and advocating for you. This is not the end, it is the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s moderate conservative party won 14 of the 15 constituencies in the eastern Caribbean archipelago, according to preliminary results.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people have come out and said…’We want a better future for ourselves,\u2019\u201d Friday said as hundreds of people gathered in the capital, Kingstown, to support him, many blowing vuvuzelas in excitement.<\/p>\n

\u201cFriday! Friday! Friday!\u201d they chanted as they welcomed him as he stepped off a boat onto the main island of St. Vincent.<\/p>\n

He noted that his campaign began with village meetings as support began to grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that there are a lot of challenges ahead,\u201d he told the crowd.<\/p>\n

Friday has promised to create more jobs, raise wages, improve security and invest in key infrastructure in the island group of more than 100,000 people.<\/p>\n

St. Vincent and the Grenadines is heavily dependent on tourism, has an 18% unemployment rate, a 26% poverty rate and is still struggling to recover from the April 2021 eruption of La Soufri\u00e8re volcano<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s party has previously advocated for a citizenship by investment program and for closer ties with China, while Gonsalves\u2019 party had long maintained strong relations with Taiwan.<\/p>\n

Under Gonsalves, St. Vincent and the Grenadines signed a free movement deal<\/a> last month that would make it easier for its citizens to move to certain countries in the Caribbean without needing a visa or work permit.<\/p>\n

Gonsalves also helped organize an emergency meeting between the leaders of Venezuela and Guyana<\/a>, who arrived in St. Vincent in December 2023 to address a bitter border dispute.<\/p>\n

Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness wrote Friday on social media that Gonsalves has been a strong voice within Caricom, a regional trade bloc, \u201cconsistently advocating for deeper regional cooperation and a more integrated Caribbean community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHis passion for regionalism and his unwavering belief in the value of collective action have helped to shape many important conversations across our Community,\u201d Holness wrote.<\/p>\n

Holness also congratulated Friday and said he looked forward to working with him: \u201cHis election signifies a new chapter for the Vincentian people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friday previously ran against Gonsalves in the 2020 election and lost.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of supporters clad in yellow and blue spent most of Friday in Kingstown to support the new prime minister. Some crowded over a coffin assembled from cardboard and covered in campaign posters from Gonsalves\u2019 party as they blew vuvuzelas over it.<\/p>\n

Later in the day, they released the coffin at sea and bade farewell.<\/p>\n

The new prime minister was scheduled to be sworn in on Friday late afternoon.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press videographer Kenton Chance in Kingstown, St. Vincent, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

____<\/p>\n

Follow AP\u2019s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/latin-america<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) \u2014 St. Vincent and the Grenadines is preparing to welcome a new prime…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":411374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[163876,1613,1226,7837,90,57,193448,1612,109202,50,92550,80,193446,193447,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-411373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-andrew-holness","9":"tag-central-america","10":"tag-conservatism","11":"tag-democracy","12":"tag-elections","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-kingstown","15":"tag-latin-america","16":"tag-miguel-daz-canel","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-nicolas-maduro","19":"tag-politics","20":"tag-ralph-gonsalves","21":"tag-st-vincent-and-the-grenadines","22":"tag-world","23":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}