Caribbean electorate giving governments one term based on performance, says St Kitts and Nevis Opposition Leader

BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS – The electorate in the Caribbean is becoming more educated and analytical in assessing the performance of governments based on their promises.
This is the view of Leader of the Opposition in St. Kitts and Nevis, the right Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas in comments to the United Workers Party (UWP) election victory over the incumbent St. Lucia Labour Party (SLP) of outgoing Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Kenny Anthony.
Dr Doulas, a former Prime Minister and Political Leader of the opposition St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) congratulated Prime Minister-designate Allan Chastanet on his election victory.
“I would want to congratulate Mr., Allan Chastanet on his decisive electoral victory and all those who were successful with him in the UWP. I also congratulate former Prime Minister Stephenson King, who eventually became part of that winning team. I would also like to complement, Dr. Kenny Anthony, the outgoing prime minister, his Cabinet and Party for leading St. Lucia through a relatively difficult period and hoping that he will continue to serve the interests of his people, especially those in his constituency” Dr. Douglas told the Nevis-based THG Network.
The former St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister, who led a four-term government from 1995 to 2015 made the following observation.
“The Caribbean electorate seems at this present time to be very, very, decisive in allowing current (Caribbean) governments to have only one term. We have seen the trend in St. Lucia itself, because Kenny (Anthony) came back and this would be his first term after returning and before that the UWP was also given only one term.
We have seen the same situation in Trinidad and Tobago and we saw Kamla Persad-Brissessar having only one electoral term. In Grenada, Tilman Thomas had one term only and in Jamaica, not only the JLP before Portia Simpson-Miller and she also getting one term,” he said.
“It seems as though the electorate is very impatient with the government of the day that are not delivering on their expectations, especially when they would have had electoral victories secured on the very many promises, which obviously the electorate did not receive the benefits of and so they removed them,” said Dr. Douglas, who commended the people of St. Lucia for a peaceful election campaign.
Dr. Douglas further stated that the electorate in the Caribbean is responding to promises made by governments and are severe in their assessment on governments who have made promises and have not delivered.
“Democracy is alive and well in the Caribbean region. There was a time when there was some thinking that political parties to some extent were less effective than before and could have been overtaken by some other entity in the electoral processes. It is very clear that political parties are very much in control in terms of participation in the democratic process. This notion of obliterating political parties and having groups come together and not specifically political parties pursuing political elections separate entities, distinct entities is a notion of the past,” said Dr Douglas, who said he has sent off on Monday night his personal congratulations and that of the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party to the new incoming government of St Lucia.