GOVERNMENT
St. Vincent
and the Grenadines is a parliamentary democracy within the Commonwealth
of Nations. Queen Elizabeth II is head of state and is represented
on the island by a governor general, an office with mostly ceremonial
functions. Control of the government rests with the prime minister
and the cabinet.
The parliament is a unicameral body, consisting of 15 elected members and six appointed senators. The governor general appoints senators, four on the advice of the prime minister and two on the advice of the leader of the opposition. The parliamentary term of office is five years, although the prime minister may call elections at any time.
As in
other English-speaking Caribbean countries, the judiciary in St.
Vincent is rooted in British common law. There are 11 courts in
three magisterial districts. The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court,
comprising a high court and a court of appeals, is known in St.
Vincent as the St. Vincent and the Grenadines supreme court. The
court of last resort is the judicial committee of Her Majesty's
Privy Council in London.
There
is no local government in St. Vincent, and all six parishes are
administered by the central government.
POLITICAL CONDITIONS
The
People's Political Party (PPP), founded in 1952 by Ebenezer Joshua,
was the first major political party in St. Vincent. The PPP had
its roots in the labor movement and was in the forefront of national
policy prior to independence, winning elections from 1957 through
1966. With the development of a more conservative black middle
class, however, the party began to steadily lose support, until
it collapsed after a rout in the 1979 elections. The party dissolved
itself in 1984.
Founded in 1955, the St. Vincent Labor Party (SYLP), under
R. Milton Cato, gained the support of the middle class. With
a conservative law-and-order message and a pro-Western foreign
policy, the SYLP dominated politics from the mid-1960s until
the mid-1980s. Following victories in the 1967 and 1974 elections,
the SYLP led the island to independence, winning the first post-independence
election in 1979. Expecting an easy victory for the SYLP in
1984, Cato called early elections. The results were surprising:
with a record 89% voter turnout, James F. Mitchell's New Democratic
Party (NDP) won nine seats in the house of assembly.
Since the
1984 election, politics in St. Vincent have been dominated by
the NDP. Bolstered by a resurgent economy in the mid-1980s,
Mitchell led his party to an unprecedented sweep of all 15 house
of assembly seats in the 1989 elections. The opposition emerged
from the election weakened and fragmented but was able to win
three seats during the February 1994 elections under a "unity"
coalition. In 1998, Prime Minister Mitchell and the NDP were
returned to power for an unprecedented fourth term but only
with a slim margin of 8 seats to 7 seats for the Unity Labour
Party (ULP). The NDP was able to accomplish a return to power
while receiving a lesser share of the popular vote, approximately
45% to the ULP's 55%. In March 2001, the ULP, led by Ralph Gonsalves,
assumed power after winning 12 of the 15 seats in Parliament.
In the December 2005 parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Gonsalves and the ULP retained their 12-3 majority over the NDP.
Principal
Government Officials
Head of State--Queen Elizabeth II
Governor General--Sir Frederick Ballantyne
Prime Minister--Ralph E. Gonsalves
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Commerce, and Trade--Sir Louis Straker
Ambassador to the U.S. and the OAS--Ellsworth I. A. John
Ambassador to the UN--Margaret Hughes Ferrari
St. Vincent
and the Grenadines maintains an embassy at 3216 New Mexico Ave.,
NW, Washington, DC 20016 (tel. 202-462-7806). St.Vincent also
has a consul resident in New York.
Government
Type: Parliamentary democracy; independent sovereign state
within the Commonwealth.
Independence: October 27, 1979.
Constitution: October 27, 1979.
Branches: Executive--governor general (representing Queen
Elizabeth II, head of state), prime minister (head of government),
cabinet. Legislative--Unicameral legislature with 15-member elected
house of assembly and six-member appointed senate. Judicial--district
courts, Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (high court and court
of appeals), final appeal to the Privy Council in London.
Subdivisions: Six parishes.
Political parties: Unity Labor Party (ULP, incumbent; holds
12 of 15 seats in parliament), New Democratic Party (NDP).
Suffrage: Universal at 18.
