LIKE in Guyana on September 1 and Jamaica on September 4, two more Caribbean Community (CARICOM) nations are facing back-to-back 2025 elections later this year: Saint Vincent and The Grenadines on November 27 and Saint Lucia on December 1.

Saint Vincent and The Grenadines’ (SVG) polling day next Thursday also coincides with the island’s observance of Thanksgiving Day, when Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves and his ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP) hope and expect Vincentians to thank his administration for deliveries in its last (fifth) five-year term.

On the other hand, the opposition National Democratic Party (NDP) is hoping and praying that this will be its first election win after a record number of successive losses to the ULP.

As per usual, with just days left, the ULP and NDP are going head-to-head – the ruling party continuing to highlight what it has traditionally described as the inability of the current opposition leader, Dr Godwin Friday to have broken his party’s 24-year loss record, while the opposition is again saying it’s time for change.

The ULP and PM Gonsalves – by-far the longest-serving CARICOM leader – are seeking an unprecedented sixth term and sound confident on the hustings.

The NDP is relying largely on accusing the Prime Minister and his family of irregular conduct pertaining to the PM’s wife and son’s legal purchase (many years ago) of two homes from a Trinidad & Tobago (T&T) housing project.

Information about the purchases was admittedly made public by T&T’s Junior Housing Minister Anil Roberts.

As it would turn out, however, PM Gonsalves’ wife is a born-Trinidadian, who says the purchased properties were for her Dominican parents (and relatives) whose homes had been seriously damaged by Hurricanes Maria and Irma.

She says the transition was totally legal and the T&T million-dollar costs were paid because what was intended to be a low-income housing project had gone into astronomical cost-overruns that forced the ministry to charge high-end prices beyond the pockets of low-income earners.

Meanwhile, T&T sources are claiming the junior minister could have violated confidentiality clauses guarding personal and other required information declared by client purchasers, while PM Gonsalves has indicated he may take related legal action.

The NDP has also been suggesting that PM Gonsalves intends to propose or appoint his son Camilo – also Minister for Finance – as Prime Minister, should the ULP win.

But ULP supporters insist it’s their party leaders and members to decide who should succeed PM Gonsalves – who’s indicated this is his last term — should he lead the party to a sixth term and retire as an undefeated ‘six-star-general’.

As in the two-party systems in most CARICOM states and in the absence of verifiable polling systems to determine their support, both sides are adamant they’ll win, red and yellow-clad supporters attending final meetings and rallies in high numbers.

Interestingly, the respective partisan colour themes are the same in SVG as they were in T&T and are in Saint Lucia: the ruling ULP is ‘Red and Ready’ and the NDP’s is ‘The Code Is Yellow’.

‘Red’ and ‘Yellow’ clashes took place peacefully in T&T in this year’s April election that saw the latter voting for regime change — following which SVG’s NDP and Saint Lucia’s opposition United Workers Party (UWP) have both also been clamouring for ‘Code Yellow’ to lead to local regime change, respectively.

There have been strong suggestions, however, that the ‘Code Yellow’ campaigns are being coordinated in SVG and Saint Lucia by an external political propaganda entity — supposedly associated with the disgraced Cambridge Analytica outfit — previously involved in Caribbean elections.

A search on Meta AI reveals:

‘Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm, has been linked to several Caribbean elections, raising concerns about external interference in regional politics.

‘Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL), the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, was active in the Caribbean for over 20 years, helping politicians win or lose elections.

‘Specific examples of SCL/Cambridge Analytica’s involvement include:

• Dominica (2009): SCL managed the opposition United Workers Party (UWP) campaign, with an invoice of US $1.5 million paid by an unknown party.
• Barbados (2013): SCL worked with the Democratic Labour Party (DLP).
• Trinidad & Tobago (2010): The Trinidad & Tobago government engaged SCL, sparking controversy over data access and potential voter manipulation.
• St. Kitts and Nevis (2010): Former Prime Minister Denzil Douglas claimed Henley & Partners, linked to SCL, arranged financing for his campaign.’

Meta AI concluded: ‘These activities have raised questions about the influence of external actors in Caribbean politics and the use of data-driven campaign tactics.

‘Critics argue such involvement undermines regional sovereignty and democratic processes.’

Interestingly, former SVG Prime Minister Sir James Mitchell was a major player with SCL.

With claims in Saint Lucia today that SCL is coordinating the ‘Code Yellow’ campaigns in SVG and locally, understandable questions are being asked by concerned citizens.

For example:

In 2010, the now-ruling United National Congress (UNC) was in office (during PM Persad-Bissessar’s first term). So, was SCL involved 15 years later in its 2025 victory?

Is SCL again present in SVG this year?

In the 2016 and 2021 Saint Lucia General Elections, Saint Lucia’s (now ruling) SLP accused the opposition United Workers Party (UWP) of engaging SCL, so, it’s pertinent to ask: Is SCL also involved in the race to the December 1 finish this year?

Answers are unlikely until after the two elections on November 27 and December 1, by which time, there may be some answers relating to T&T’s April 2025 elections.

But in the meantime, ‘The Code Is Yellow’ continues to reverberate off opposition platforms in Saint Lucia and SVG, with both parties confidently claiming they will win regardless of the achievements and delivered promises being campaigned on by the ruling ‘Red and Ready’ parties.

And once again, the concern (and not only among ‘Red’ parties) is about allegations and possibilities of undue external influence in Caribbean elections.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.