Grenada United Labour Party | |
|---|---|
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| Leader | Geoffrey Preudhomme |
| Founder | Eric Gairy |
| Founded | 1950 (as Grenada People's Party) |
| Headquarters | Gladstone Road, Grenville, St. Andrew's |
| Newspaper | The Grenada Guardian |
| Ideology | Populism [1] Nationalism [2] Republicanism Conservatism [3] [4] Labourism [2] |
| Political position | Right-wing |
| Colors | Red |
| House of Representatives: | 0 / 15 |
| Party flag | |
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| Website | |
| gulpgrenada | |
The Grenada United Labour Party (GULP) is a political party in Grenada.
The party was founded by Eric Gairy in 1950. It contested the first elections held under universal suffrage in 1951, and won six of the eight seats. [5] The 1954 elections saw the same outcome. In the 1957 elections it lost four seats, whilst two other parties, the Grenada National Party and the People's Democratic Movement also won two seats, with the GNP's leader Herbert Blaize becoming leader of the island.
The party regained power after winning eight of the ten seats in the 1961 elections. [5] It lost the 1962 elections to the GNP, before returning to power in the 1967 elections. The party remained in power following the 1972 elections, but Gairy's government became increasingly authoritarian, with his secret police (the Mongoose Gang) threatening the opposition. Following the 1976 elections, which were branded fraudulent by international observers, Gairy was overthrown in a coup in 1979.
After democracy was restored, GULP won only a single seat in the 1984 elections and has since remained in opposition. It formed an alliance with United Labour [6] for the 1999 elections, in which it lost parliamentary representation for the first time since 1951. However, it regained a seat when Michael Baptiste of the ruling New National Party defected to GULP in June 2000. [7] [8]
Gloria Payne Banfield was elected as GULP leader in February 2003, becoming Grenada's first female party leader. In the general elections the party won 3.2% of the vote but again failed to win a seat. [7] For the 2008 elections it formed an alliance with the People's Labour Movement named the Labour Platform. The alliance fielded 11 candidates for the 15 seats, [9] but received only 478 votes and no seats.
| Election | Party leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Position | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | Eric Gairy | 13,328 | 64.2% | 6 / 8 |  6 | 1st | Opposing majority |
| 1954 | 10,347 | 46.0% | 6 / 8 |  | 1st | Opposing majority | |
| 1957 | 10,952 | 44.3% | 2 / 8 |  4 | 1st | Opposition | |
| 1961 | 11,606 | 53.3% | 8 / 10 | 6 | 1st | Majority government | |
| 1962 | 9,705 | 46.0% | 4 / 10 | 4 | 2nd | Opposition | |
| 1967 | 15,827 | 54.6% | 7 / 10 | 3 | 1st | Majority government | |
| 1972 | 20,164 | 58.9% | 13 / 15 | 6 | 1st | Majority government | |
| 1976 | 21,108 | 51.7% | 9 / 15 | 4 | 1st | Majority government | |
| 1984 | 14,721 | 35.9% | 1 / 15 | 8 | 2nd | Opposition | |
| 1990 | 11,105 | 28.1% | 4 / 15 | 12 | 2nd | Opposition | |
| 1995 | 11,608 | 26.6% | 2 / 15 | 2 | 3rd | Opposition | |
| 1999 | Herbert Preudhomme | 4,853 | 11.7% | 0 / 15 | 2 | 3rd | Extra-parliamentary |
| 2003 | Gloria Payne Banfield | 2,243 | 4.7% | 0 / 15 | | 3rd | Extra-parliamentary |
| 2008 | 478 | 0.8% | 0 / 15 | | 3rd | Extra-parliamentary | |
| 2013 | Did not contest | ||||||
| 2018 | |||||||
| 2022 | Geoffrey Preudhomme | 64 | 0.1% | 0 / 15 | | 3rd | Extra-parliamentary |
The history of Grenada in the Caribbean, part of the Lesser Antilles group of islands, covers a period from the earliest human settlements to the establishment of the contemporary nationstate of Grenada. First settled by indigenous peoples, Grenada by the time of European contact was inhabited by the Caribs. French colonists killed most of the Caribs on the island and established plantations on the island, eventually importing African slaves to work on the sugar plantations.
The politics of Grenada takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democracy, whereby the prime minister is the head of government. Grenada is an independent Commonwealth realm. It is governed under a multi-party parliamentary system whose political and legal traditions closely follow those of the United Kingdom; it has a prime minister and a cabinet, and a bicameral Parliament with an elected House of Representatives and an appointed Senate. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament. Constitutional safeguards include freedom of speech, press, worship, motion, and association. Grenada is a member of the eastern Caribbean court system. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. Jurisprudence is based on English common law.
Sir Eric Matthew Gairy PC was the first Prime Minister of Grenada, serving from his country's independence in 1974 until his overthrow in a coup by Maurice Bishop in 1979. Gairy also served as head of government in pre-independence Grenada as Chief Minister from 1961 to 1962 and as Premier from 1967 to 1974.
Maurice Rupert Bishop was a Grenadian revolutionary and the leader of the New Jewel Movement (NJM) – a Marxist–Leninist party that sought to prioritise socio-economic development, education and black liberation. The NJM came to power during the 13 March 1979 revolution which removed Prime Minister Eric Gairy from office. Bishop headed the People's Revolutionary Government of Grenada (PRG) from 1979 to 1983. In October 1983. he was deposed as Prime Minister and executed during a coup engineered by Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard. This quickly led to the demise of the PRG.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC), also known as the National Democratic Congress of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique, is a social democratic and centre-left political party in Grenada. It is the governing party in Grenada, having won a majority in the 2022 general elections. The party is led by current prime minister Dickon Mitchell as of October 2021.
The New Joint Endeavor for Welfare, Education, and Liberation, or New JEWEL Movement (NJM), was a Marxist–Leninist vanguard party in the Caribbean island nation of Grenada that was led by Maurice Bishop.
Herbert Augustus Blaize PC was a Grenadian politician and leader of the Grenada National Party. When Grenada was still a British Crown Colony he served as the first Chief Minister from 1960 to 1961, and again from 1962 to 1967. He became the first Premier of the autonomous Associated State of Grenada briefly in 1967. In the first elections following the 1983 coups and the American-led invasion of Grenada, he served as Prime Minister from 1984 until his death in 1989.
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The People's Revolutionary Government (PRG) was proclaimed on 13 March 1979 after the Marxist–Leninist New Jewel Movement overthrew the government of Grenada in a revolution, making Grenada the only socialist state within the Commonwealth. In Grenada, the revolution is referred to as the March 13th Revolution of 1979 or simply as “The Revolution”. The government suspended the constitution and ruled by decree until a factional conflict broke out, culminating in an invasion by the United States on 25 October 1983.
Grenada is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and about 100 miles (160 km) north of Trinidad and the South American mainland.
The Grenada National Party (GNP) was a conservative and economically liberal political party in Grenada that existed from 1954 to 1984, when it merged into the New National Party. It alternated in power with the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP).
General elections were held in Grenada on 20 September 1954. Although independent candidates received the most votes, Eric Gairy's Grenada United Labour Party won six of the eight seats, as it had done in the 1951 elections. At this time the Legislative Council had few powers. The role of head of government remained with the Administrator.
General elections were held in Grenada on 27 March 1961. Eric Gairy's Grenada United Labour Party won eight of the ten seats, his wife Cynthia Gairy becoming the first woman to be elected to the legislature. George E.D. Clyne of GULP became Chief Minister and served from March to August 1961 when, following the direct intervention of the British government, Gairy's political ban was lifted early, and Clyne resigned allowing Gairy to return in a by-election and become Chief Minister. Voter turnout was 55.5%.
General elections were held in Grenada on 13 September 1962. Herbert Blaize's Grenada National Party won six of the ten elected seats and Blaize was appointed Chief Minister for the second time. Blaize served as Head of Government until the next general election in August 1967, initially as Chief Minister until March 1967, and subsequently when Grenada became a fully internally autonomous Associated State, as Grenada's first Premier. Voter turnout was 73%.
General elections were held in Grenada on 7 December 1976. The result was a victory for the Grenada United Labour Party of Eric Gairy, which won nine of the 15 seats, whilst the opposition People's Alliance won the remainder. However, the elections were marred by fraud, as Gairy's secret police, known as the Mongoose Gang, had been threatening the opposition. Voter turnout was 65.2%.
The Mongoose Gang was a private army or militia which operated from 1967 to 1979 under the control of Sir Eric Gairy, the Premier and later Prime Minister of Grenada, and head of the Grenada United Labour Party. Officially, Mongoose Gang members were called Special Reserve Police (S.R.P.) or Volunteer Constables.
Sir John Augustus Fitzroy Watts KCMG CBE was a Grenadian dentist, politician and co-founder of the Grenada National Party.
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