St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves is set to lead the ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP) into the next general election, constitutionally due in 2026 after indicating that there will be no changes in the political leadership of the ULP at its convention due to be held on Sunday, July 31.
Gonsalves, who turns 76 in August, told a radio program that no one has been nominated to run against him as the party’s political leader and, in an apparent reference to his health, added that “unless advised otherwise”, he will lead the party into the next general election.
“I’m fine. I’m fine,” he said, when asked about his general health, adding “I wouldn’t tell you how much weight I have lost. It is a good number. There are other phases I have to deal with in terms of, and I feel good, and I feel fit, and I am working long hours.”
Prime Minister Gonsalves said he expects Deputy Prime Minister Montgomery Daniel will be elected as the party’s deputy political leader.
Daniel had been acting as the party’s de facto deputy leader since Sir Louis Straker retired from politics in 2020.
In a July 15 analysis, social commentator and former Speaker of the House of Assembly, Jomo Thomas, said the prime minister was “prepared to preside over the destruction of the ULP rather than allow democracy to run its course.
“Ralph Gonsalves would rather the country grind to a halt rather than allow for the emergence of anyone other than his son, Camillo, as ULP leader and prime minister,” said Thomas, a former ULP senator who lost in his bid to win South Leeward for the ULP in in 2015.
But Prime Minister Gonsalves told radio listeners that the ULP had rejected his proposal for leadership transition and that he will lead the party into the next general election, constitutionally due in March 2026 – five months shy of Gonsalves’ 80th birthday.
Gonsalves, one of the longest serving heads of government in the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM), said he began in the party a conversation about leadership transition.
“I took it upon myself … I talk about it because I consider it an obligation of mine as a leader to talk about transition,” he said, adding he was elected as a leader of the party and reappointed as prime minister in December 2020.
The last general election was held on November 5, 2020, with Gonsalves leading the party to a fifth consecutive term in office.
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