Saint Lucians stunned the world on December 1, 2025 when they voted for continuity instead of regime change, giving the ruling Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) a 16-1 parliamentary majority and a second term – and dealing a humiliating blow to the opposition United Workers Party (UWP).
It was a simply amazing Caribbean event.
The 14-1 defeat three days earlier of the SLP’ sister party — the Unity Labour Party (ULP) and its leader and former Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves — in neighbouring Saint Vincent & The Grenadines (SVG), would have somehow affected how Saint Lucians voted.
New Vincentian Prime Minister and Leader of the now-ruling New Democratic Party (NDP), Dr. Godwin Friday, publicly endorsed his local allies — Saint Lucia’s Opposition Leader Allen Chastanet and the UWP — as the island’s voters headed to the polling stations.
“The Code Is Yellow!” PM Friday said in his message to Saint Lucian voters.
But there was no visible effect here, the vast majority of electors instead overwhelmingly rejecting the Vincentian PM’s intrusive invitation to vote for his friend(s).
The Saint Lucia results not-only reversed the fate dealt Dr Gonsalves in the November 27 SVG elections and his replacement by Dr Friday — it also cut the UWPs slender parliamentary representation by half.
The 16-1 defeat is also a repeat of the UWP’s first such loss 28 years ago (in 1997) by the SLP, led by Dr. Kenny D. Anthony — and its second consecutive overwhelming defeat by the SLP under Pierre’s leadership.
Two such disgracing defeats in four years is a telling blow for the UWP under Chastanet’s leadership and loud calls started on Election Night (including by senior party persons in public broadcast commentaries) for his resignation from leadership and parliamentary positions.
It’s much too early to judge how Chastanet will ultimately respond, but he’s felt the overweight of the mass-exodus by leading UWP figures to the SLP during the short 21-day election campaign.
The SLP’s latest victory is largely attributed to the leadership style of Prime Minister Pierre, who led a respectable campaign and avoided temptations to respond to negative propaganda.
On his first four-year outing as PM, Pierre called the elections a-year-ahead, to renew and strengthen his mandate – and the electorate overly-granted his request for a second term.
The indefatigable Pierre has now surpassed his joint six-term record with Dr Anthony, having now won a seven consecutive term as MP for Castries East.
Dr Anthony formally departed from elective politics ahead of the 2025 elections, after 28 years as MP for Vieux Fort South (since 1997).
Prime Minister Gonsalves was also a ‘Six-star General’ before he and the ULP lost their bid for a sixth consecutive term as ruling party and government.
The veteran Caribbean leader was laughed-at by some critics, but his legacy has been highly-praised by fellow political and government leaders acquainted with his long-lasting contribution to regional politics.
Now, however, Dr Gonsalves says his successor has withdrawn his long-held official security detail.
It would be a strong departure from usual protocols allowed former government leaders anywhere, but if Prime Minister Friday’s administration has withdrawn the traditional protocols enjoyed by his predecessor for over-25 years, it would not be unprecedented.
After the UWP won the 2016 General Elections, former Saint Lucia Prime Minister Anthony had his entire security detail immediately withdrawn.
But no such steps were taken against former Prime Minister and Opposition Leader Chastanet.
The UWP’s second of its two-worst defeats at the polls here was an equally strong defeat of Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL), an influence-peddling and mind-bending political outfit associated with the disgraced UK-based Cambridge Analytica (CA).
SCL is described online as CA’s ‘parent company’ and among its early Caribbean directors was the late former Vincentian Prime Minister Sir James Mitchell.
SCL’s clients for CARICOM’s 2025 elections cycle included Trinidad & Tobago (T&T) Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s United National Congress (UNC) and SVG’s NDP — both of which claim to have won general elections thanks to the SCL’s coordination of their common ‘Code is Yellow’ campaigns.
The UWP is also a 2025 client, but its red-blooded defeat by the SLP also bore a deep hole into SCL’s claims to be a sure driver to party election victories.
The UWP, NDP and UNC also belong to the Caribbean Democratic Union (CDU), the regional affiliate of the International Democratic Union (IDU), which represent the right-wing and centre-right political tendencies on the regional and global stages.
On the other hand, T&T’s People’s National Movement (PNM), SVG’s ULP and Saint Lucia’s SLP are Social Democratic Labour Parties (to the left of SCL’s clients), bringing an ideological dimension to the SLP’s outstanding electoral victory on Monday evening: the SCL’s outright defeat.
But, all-in-all, the Saint Lucia elections results also marked a greater defeat for those parties and politicians specializing in using Big Money to devise schemes to deprive voters from freely exercising their franchise, without external influence.
Elections and Integrity laws across CARICOM do outlaw soliciting of votes by or on behalf of parties or election candidates and local police received and acted on reports of soliciting by opposition candidates in at-least three of the island’s 17 constituencies.
Huge sums – reportedly between $12,000 and $30,000 – in possession of at least two candidates, were said to have been temporarily withheld by officers of the Royal St. Lucia Police Force (RSLPF), with one candidate publicly acknowledged being approached by the lawmen.
SCL’s usual million-dollar mind-bending fees and the untold thousands offered to voters across constituencies (by the hundreds) to influence how they voted, though much, was simply not-enough to change how Saint Lucians elected to select their future.
They left no unclear message as to which party and leader they trust.
And they collectively proved — in yet-another demonstrable, yet seemingly-mysterious way — that they’re more-sensible and politically-sophisticated — and yet-still very-highly misunderstood and lowly-underestimated by those who continue, even today, to take Caribbean citizens and voters for absolute granted.