Saint Lucia, general elections underway

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This Monday, December 1st general elections are underway in Saint Lucia, where more than 179 thousand people are expected to vote. Our correspondent, Belen de los Santos brings us more details. teleSUR

Transcript

00:00This Monday, December 1st, general elections are underway in San Lucia,

00:04where more than 179,000 people are expected to vote.

00:08Our correspondent, Melinda Los Santos, brings us more details.

00:19Hello, Ale. Exactly as you were saying, we're here in San Lucia.

00:23We're in Castries East, the eastern part of the capital,

00:27and the polling is underway at this moment.

00:30Polling stations have been open since 6.30 a.m. local time.

00:35It's 8.45 at this moment, so the polls have been open for over two hours.

00:40Let's recall that this is the general elections called a little bit early, actually,

00:46by Prime Minister Philippe Pierre.

00:48He's seeking to renew his mandate for the San Lucia Labour Party,

00:53and he called for these elections.

00:55And this early call can be explained a little bit by his confidence,

01:00the confidence that the party has in the possibility of renewing

01:04based on the achievements that they have conquered during these past years.

01:09Let's recall the mandate started in 2021 right after COVID,

01:13and the main topics, the main goals were the stabilization after that

01:18with a program focused on social measures.

01:23One of the most prominent of them, for example,

01:26was the establishment of a national minimum wage.

01:30That national unification was one of the first for San Lucia.

01:35Along with that, several plans, for example, to boost youth jobs creations as well.

01:42So those were some of the measures.

01:44Now, the SLP is now leading with the opposition.

01:49That is the United Workers' Party, led by Alan Chastanet.

01:55He actually was Prime Minister right before Prime Minister Philippe Pierre here in San Lucia.

02:00And some of the main characteristics of that government was a right-wing government

02:07that focused solely and primarily on the private sector in order to try to boost the economy.

02:15That Prime Minister ended his mandate in 2021 with a landline victory.

02:20And as we were saying, the SLP is trying at this moment to revalidate for five more years.

02:28Let's recall 17 constituencies that are fighting vote-to-vote in order to obtain that majority.

02:35Whoever gets the majority of the 17 will elect the Prime Minister.

02:39And actually, this, where we are right now,

02:42Castries East is the constituency where the Prime Minister is candidate himself.

02:47So that is one of the local factors taken into account.

02:52We will have more on this election.

02:54But for now, I leave you with a little bit of what we were seeing yesterday on the day before the election.

03:00So, Ale, that is all for now.

03:02You can see the package and we'll come back with contact in future news briefs.

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