00:13Antigua and Barbura is preparing to hold the general elections on Thursday April 30th with
00:18the governing party of Prime Minister Gaston Brown seeking a fourth term in office. In this
00:24context our correspondent Belén de los Santos is there and she has more details. Hello Bel,
00:29welcome. Hello Ale, a pleasure to greet you from here from St. John's in Antigua and Barbuda. As you
00:36were just saying tomorrow is the big day the general elections that were called as you were referring
00:42by Prime Minister Gaston Brown called from the Labour Party of Antigua and Barbuda. As you know
00:49the constitutional mandate in Antigua lasts for five years but the Prime Minister is able to call
00:56elections whenever he dims fit. In that case that is what happened on March when he called for this
01:03snap elections understanding that this was an important moment for the people to go back to
01:09the polls and revalidate the mandate or choose who is going to run the country for the following five
01:15years. One of the reasons that he was highlighting was the important and also very complex global
01:22context let's understand that the Caribbean and especially the small developing islands are among
01:29the nations that are hardest hit always by global crisis. They depend an important amount on tourism
01:36for example the economic crisis around the world impacts all the developing nations in particular and
01:44in that context as the Prime Minister Gaston Brown said that it was very important for Antigua to
01:49revalidate its mandate and have a strong leadership to make all the decisions needed in that context for
01:56the sovereignty of the nation. That is the context in which the ruling party the Labour Party of Antigua
02:03and Barbuda is calling for this snap elections in the opposition the United Progressive Party the UPP
02:10led by Jamal Pringle those are the main parties that will be contesting the 17 constituencies that make up
02:21for the entire nation most of them both are in most of the constituencies and step up for Barbuda that
02:30has
02:30its own movement in particular for that area of the country but those are the largest contesting parties
02:37at that moment that is what is happening here among the main topics of discussion are tourism for example
02:44that has seen an important reboot after the pandemic and is on an important improving slope and the Prime
02:53Minister in this case is trying to continue that trend and also use that as one of the major achievements
02:58in this moment in the polls in front of the people that is what is happening here we are seeing
03:05in the streets people are crossing by with the colors for each of the party and of course
03:09tomorrow is the big day Ale. And at what time are electoral activities scheduled to begin tomorrow
03:16and also how is the people and the authorities preparing for this important event?
03:22Well of course you were just saying it because it's a day before this is a day of organization
03:28people are getting together there is activity in the what will be the polling districts the polling
03:35centers the counting centers as well so a lot of preparation for from the electoral authorities in
03:42the day before also for anything that has to do with the media coverage the logistics everything today
03:49is being set up and in the streets what we see as we were just saying as the people that
03:54are wearing the
03:55typical colors red for the Antigua and Bermuda Labor Party blue and gold for the UPP also we see cars
04:04walking around with their megaphones and chanting different slogans representing both of the parties
04:11that is the climate of the streets it's very calm but also with great expectation for what is happening
04:17tomorrow and you were asking about the opening of the polls at 6 a.m they will go from 6
04:23a.m to 6 p.m
04:24so it will be a long day 12 hours of vote of voting and then the counting sessions that will
04:31begin and then that
04:33rally to see who gets the most of those 17 constituencies for the coming five years that is what we
04:40are seeing
04:41right now but we will have more information of course, Ale.
04:45I love your information we are going to keep in contact with you for every little detail in this important
04:51event for Antigua and Bermuda and the whole region of the Coreia
04:54BBM as a whole
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