After one term in opposition, the Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) will form the next Government of Saint Lucia.
The party won 13 seats while the incumbent United Workers Party managed only two seats, the same number won by a pair of unique Independent candidates – Stephenson King, who recently departed from the UWP, and Richard Frederick, a self-proclaimed ‘Independent Labour candidate’.
Loop News spoke with Prime Minister-Elect Philip J Pierre after the victory was clear: “Here we are, we’ve won the government and I intend to be a government for the entire country, a government of inclusion, a government that will listen to people, a government of tolerance and we hope to take this country out of the mire of division and conflict that exists now.”
Pierre said the SLP administration’s first priority would be health and the youth economy.
Pierre spoke on how it felt that he would soon be sworn-in as prime minister having served as acting prime minister under Kenny Anthony: “It’s good to be a life of continued service, we’re going to be continuing serving the people, just serving at another level.”
The Labour Party retained all the seats it had won in the 2016 election: Castries East (Philip J Pierre), Castries South (Ernest Hilaire), Laborie (Alva Baptiste), Vieux Fort South (Kenny Anthony), Vieux Fort North (Moses Jn Baptiste) and Dennery North (Shawn Edward) and picked up an additional seven seats.
Labour picked up: Babonneau (Virginia Albert-Poyotte), Anse-La-Raye/Canaries (Wayne Girard), Soufriere (Emma Hippolyte), Micoud North (Jeremiah Norbert), Castries South East (Joachim Henry), Dennery South (Alfred Prospere) and Gros Islet (Kenson Casimir).
The United Workers Party managed to win in only Micoud South, won by outgoing prime minister Allen Chastanet, and in Choiseul with Bradly Felix.