SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — St. Vincent and the Grenadines 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 of the Unity Labor Party.
Gonsalves was first elected in March 2001, making him one of the world’s longest serving democratic leaders in recent history.
He was a staunch supporter of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel.
Gonsalves’ party posted a brief statement on Facebook following Thursday’s election: “We love you, SVG, and we will keep working and advocating for you. This is not the end, it is the beginning.”
Friday’s moderate conservative party won 14 of the 15 constituencies in the eastern Caribbean archipelago, according to preliminary results.
“The people have come out and said…’We want a better future for ourselves,’” Friday said as hundreds of people gathered in the capital, Kingstown, to support him, many blowing vuvuzelas in excitement.
“Friday! Friday! Friday!” they chanted as they welcomed him as he stepped off a boat onto the main island of St. Vincent.
He noted that his campaign began with village meetings as support began to grow.
“I know that there are a lot of challenges ahead,” he told the crowd.
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.
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 Soufrière volcano.
Friday’s party has previously advocated for a citizenship by investment program and for closer ties with China, while Gonsalves’ party had long maintained strong relations with Taiwan.
Under Gonsalves, St. Vincent and the Grenadines signed a free movement deal 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.
Gonsalves also helped organize an emergency meeting between the leaders of Venezuela and Guyana, who arrived in St. Vincent in December 2023 to address a bitter border dispute.
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness wrote Friday on social media that Gonsalves has been a strong voice within Caricom, a regional trade bloc, “consistently advocating for deeper regional cooperation and a more integrated Caribbean community.”
“His passion for regionalism and his unwavering belief in the value of collective action have helped to shape many important conversations across our Community,” Holness wrote.
Holness also congratulated Friday and said he looked forward to working with him: “His election signifies a new chapter for the Vincentian people.”
Friday previously ran against Gonsalves in the 2020 election and lost.
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’ party as they blew vuvuzelas over it.
Later in the day, they released the coffin at sea and bade farewell.
The new prime minister was scheduled to be sworn in on Friday late afternoon.
___
Associated Press videographer Kenton Chance in Kingstown, St. Vincent, contributed to this report.
____
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
