The House of Assembly is a unicameral parliament with fifteen 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 English common law. There are eleven 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 the 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 Saint Vincent Labour Party (SVLP), under Milton Cato, gained the support of the middle class. With a conservative law-and-order message and a pro-Western foreign policy, the SVLP dominated politics from the mid-1960s until the mid-1980s. Following victories in the 1967 and 1974 elections, the SVLP led the island to independence, winning the first post-independence election in 1979. Expecting an easy victory for the SVLP in 1984, Cato called early elections. The results were surprising: with a record 89% voter turnout, James Fitz-Allen 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 fifteen 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 eight seats to seven 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 twelve of the fifteen seats in Parliament. The party was returned to power under the same leadership in December 2005, holding the same twelve seats in Parliament. The ULP was returned to power in 2010 and also following the election on 9 December 2015 when it won 8 out of the 15 constituencies. Ralph Gonsalves remains Prime Minister.
Executive branch
As head of state, King Charles III is represented by a governor general who acts on the advice of the prime minister and the cabinet.
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.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is an island country in the eastern Caribbean. It is located in the southeast Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, which lie in the West Indies, at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea, where the latter meets the Atlantic Ocean.
Ralph Everard Gonsalves is a Vincentian politician. He is currently the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and leader of the Unity Labour Party (ULP).
SirJames Fitz-Allen Mitchell was a Vincentian politician who served as the second Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines from 1984 to 2000 and as the second Premier of Saint Vincent from 1972 to 1974. He founded the New Democratic Party (NDP) in 1975, and served as its president until 2000.
The New Democratic Party (NDP) is a moderate conservative political party in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The party is led by Godwin Friday, and is currently the official opposition in the House of Assembly.
The Unity Labour Party (ULP) is a democratic socialist political party in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Currently the governing party, it is led by Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves.
Arnhim Ulric Eustace is a Vincentian retired politician and economist. He served as the third Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and is the former Leader of the Opposition and former president of the New Democratic Party (NDP) after resigning in 2016.
The House of Assembly of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is the unicameral legislature of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The Vincentian monarch and the House of Assembly constitute the Parliament of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
The monarchy of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a system of government in which a hereditary monarch is the sovereign and head of state of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The current Vincentian monarch and head of state, since 8 September 2022, is King Charles III. As sovereign, he is the personal embodiment of the Vincentian Crown. Although the person of the sovereign is equally shared with 14 other independent countries within the Commonwealth of Nations, each country's monarchy is separate and legally distinct. As a result, the current monarch is officially titled King of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and, in this capacity, he and other members of the royal family undertake public and private functions domestically and abroad as representatives of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. However, the King is the only member of the royal family with any constitutional role.
A constitutional referendum was held in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on 25 November 2009. Voters were asked whether they approved of a new constitution which would have replaced the constitution in force since independence in 1979. The proposal was supported by only 43.13% of voters in the referendum, well short of the required two-thirds threshold. If approved, the proposed constitution would have abolished the monarchy of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, headed by Queen Elizabeth II, and would have given more power to the opposition. The referendum was the first of its kind to be held by a member of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.
General elections were held in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on 9 December 1974. The result was a victory for the Saint Vincent Labour Party, which won ten of the 13 seats. Voter turnout was 63.2%.
General elections were held in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on 5 December 1979. The result was a victory for the Saint Vincent Labour Party (SVLP), which won eleven of the thirteen seats. Voter turnout was 63.9%.
General elections were held in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on 15 June 1998. Although the Unity Labour Party (ULP) received a majority of the public vote, the New Democratic Party (NDP) won a majority of seats, the first time the party receiving a majority of the vote had failed to win the elections since 1966. Voter turnout was 67.4%.
General elections were held in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on 28 March 2001. The Unity Labour Party (ULP), which had won the popular vote in the 1998 elections but lost to the New Democratic Party (NDP), this time won a landslide victory, taking 12 of the 15 seats, ending seventeen years of an NDP government. The NDP retained only three of its eight seats inclusive of the two Grenadines seats which had voted for the party's former leader, Sir James Mitchell, in every general election since 1966.
General elections were held in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on 9 December 2015. The result was a victory for the Unity Labour Party, which retained its one seat majority. However, the NDP has challenged the results in two constituencies, North Windward, and Central Leeward.
General elections were held in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on 5 November 2020. Nomination day was 20 October 2020. The result was a victory for the Unity Labour Party, its fifth in a row; the party won nine of the fifteen seats, gaining one seat. These elections marked the first time since 1998 that the party which received the most votes did not win the most seats and the first time since 1994 that the New Democratic Party won the popular vote.
Alphonso Alpheus Dennie was a Vincentian educator who served as the Minister of Education, Community Development and Youth Affairs from 4 May 1972 to 18 September 1974. Outside of politics, he was the headmaster of schools both in the country as well as in Barbados. He spent the latter part of his career as chairman of the national electricity company and as chairman of the philatelic bureau.
Rochelle Forde is a Saint Vincent and the Grenadines lawyer and politician who has been Speaker of the country's House of Assembly since November 2020.
Girlyn Miguel is a Vincentian educator and politician who served in the Parliament of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines from 1998 until 2015. A member of the Unity Labour Party, Miguel also served as Deputy Prime Minister from 2010 to 2015, becoming the first woman to hold the position.
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