The New Democratic Party was founded in Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, on 3 December 1975. Its first leader was Sir James Fitz-Allen Mitchell, commonly referred to by his peers as Son Mitchell.
In 1979, the party contested the general elections and won two seats in the then 13-seat parliament.
Five years later, the NDP won with nine of the thirteen seats, making Mitchell the country's second prime minister. By way of a by-election, when the Labour Party leader Robert Milton Cato closed the last chapter of his political book, the NDP gained an additional seat advantage.
As of 2025[update], the NDP is the first and only Vincentian political party to have won all the seats in a national election, doing so in 1989.
The development of the banana and tourism industries has been a major pillar of economic development for Saint Vincent, spearheaded by the NDP.
When Mitchell departed elective politics, Arnhim Eustace was elected president of the NDP and subsequently became the third prime minister. He served as Leader of the Parliamentary Opposition from 2001 to 2016. Under Eustace's leadership, the NDP expanded and became more democratic, with the central executive and party delegates becoming more involved in the election and selection of the party's executive members.
In 2016 Eustace resigned, and since then the party has been led by Godwin Friday. Under Friday's leadership, the party had a lacklustre result in the 2020 general election. However, the party won 14 of 15 seats in the House of Assembly following the 2025 general election, forming a government for the first time since 1998.[1]
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