Caribbean & Central America - July 2014 (ISSN 1741-4458)

***ABLP RETURNS TO POWER. The opposition Antigua & Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP), led by Gaston Browne, triumphed in general elections held in Antigua & Barbuda on 12 June. The ABLP ejected the ruling United Progressive Party (UPP) led by Baldwin Spencer after two five-year terms in office. According to the final results, the ABLP took 56.39% of the vote and doubled its seats in the 17-member House of Representatives from the last elections in 2009 to 14. The UPP took 41.57% of the vote and the remaining three seats, down from nine in the last election. The UPP’s ally, the Barbuda People’s Movement (BPM), garnered just 1.13% of the vote and lost its single parliamentary seat. Turnout was a convincing 90.06% of the total electorate of 47,720. The victory for the ABLP, which prior to its 2004 defeat had dominated Antiguan politics for three decades under the Bird family, was not a surprise given the poor state of the economy and high unemployment – the main voter concern. GDP growth was just 0.5% in 2013, down from 2.8% in 2012, according to the most recent (April 2014) report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This, after GDP contracted 2.1% in 2011; 8.6% in 2010; and 10.7% in 2009. The weak growth comes as the fiscal deficit is on the rise, reaching 4.3% of GDP in 2013, up from 1.4% in 2012, on April 2014 figures from the UN Economic Commission for Latin America & the Caribbean (Eclac).

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