Prime Minister Philippe Pierre’s Saint Lucia Labor Party (SLP) has retained its legislative majority, setting Pierre up for re-election after a campaign focused on economic management, violent crime and passport sales.
Official election results on Tuesday showed the social democratic SLP won at least 13 seats in the small Caribbean island’s 17-seat assembly, equal to its current majority, with two seats remaining. The results showed Pierre receiving 57.1% of the popular vote, while conservative opposition leader Alain Chastanet received 37.3%.
Chastanet preceded Pierre as prime minister of the country of 180,000 people. His conservative United Workers Party (UWP), which had only two seats in Monday’s voting, had gained one by late Monday evening.
During the election, Pierre advocated stability and cautious economic management, while Chastanet argued that security declined under Pierre’s leadership, partly due to more limited US support for local police – banned on the basis of past human rights abuses under the US Leahy Act. He has called for more transparent auditing of the island’s citizenship-by-investment program.
CBI programs are an important source of tax income for many small island nations in the eastern Caribbean, but the policy has raised tensions with the US government, which said the programs could be exploited by “nefarious actors” such as China or Iran.
Washington this year proposed its own “Gold Card” visa program to speed the wealthy through its immigration track.
St. Lucia’s election on Thursday follows elections in neighboring St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where the opposition swept nearly all the seats and ousted Ralph Gonsalves, who had been prime minister for 24 years.
It also comes as the US has increased its military buildup in the Caribbean, which it says is designed to stop drug trafficking around Venezuela. Authorities in the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago have allowed U.S. ships to dock in their territories.
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