Security & Strategic Review - June 2026

The recently published Democracy and Development Report 2026 for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), describes the Caribbean as “one of the most democratic regions in the developing world”, but it also cautions that Caribbean democracies are “under pressure”. Although the recent elections in Antigua & Barbuda and The Bahamas, with voter participation of 62.4% and 66.4% respectively, would suggest that the region’s democratic ethos is continuing to flourish, the UNDP’s concerns are not without substance as some of the less encouraging recent voter turnout figures in Table 1 below indicate, most particularly the figures for Barbados (42%), Dominica (32%), Jamaica (40%), and Saint Lucia (48%).