General elections were held in Antigua and Barbuda on 12 June 2014."Voting Day is June 12, 2014" Antigua Observer, 15 May 2014 The result was a victory for the opposition Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party led by Gaston Browne, which won 14 of the 17 seats. Following the election, Browne became the country's youngest Prime Minister.
Baldwin Spencer's United Progressive Party government came to the elections with an unpopular image after ten years in power and a rise in violent crime, in addition to a period of economic contraction in the context of the global economic recession, which motivated Spencer to seek help from the International Monetary Fund. Meanwhile, the ABLP, reconstituted after the arrival of Gaston Browne to its leadership (the first Labour leader outside the Bird dynasty), ran on abolishing personal income tax, creating more jobs and reactivating more local and foreign investments.
The elections resulted in a resounding victory for the ABLP, which achieved 56.64% of the validly cast votes and a record absolute majority of 14 of the 17 seats, the largest victory for any political party since 1989. His most surprising triumph took place in Barbuda, where he won by one vote and snatched the representative seat of the island from the Barbuda People's Movement for the first time in its history, the first time since 1971 that a national party won the Barbuda seat. For its part, the UPP suffered the worst defeat for an acting government in the history of the country and obtained 41.76% of the votes and 3 seats. The turnout was 90.08% of the registered electorate, the second highest in the country’s electoral history.
Browne was sworn in as Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda on June 13. At 47 years old at the time of his swearing-in, he became the youngest head of government in the country's history. Spencer, who had retained his seat in St. John's Rural West, took over as leader of the opposition in parliament, but withdrew from the leadership of the UPP in 2015.
Background The 2009 general elections, one of the tightest in the country's history, gave victory to the ruling United Progressive Party, Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer, who revalidated his absolute majority by a narrow margin with 9 of the 17 parliamentary seats, which would be joined by the seat of Trevor Walker, of the Barbuda People's Movement. The ABLP, led by Lester Bird, improved its results and Bird himself returned to parliament as leader of the opposition, but for the first time in its history the party lost two consecutive elections. The voting process was slow and recorded deficiencies that were criticized by international observation groups, although they considered the elections reasonably free and fair. However, Bird did not acknowledge the result, filing challenges in four constituencies and denouncing electoral fraud. Although he obtained a favorable judgment from the Supreme Court, annulling the results of the aforementioned constituencies, an appeal by Spencer's government suspended the sentence and finally prevailed in the Court of Appeals, confirming the results. Bird did not recognize his defeat as clean and, as a result, did not fulfill his promise to resign as Labour leader if the party lost the elections.
The following period was marked by the deterioration of the economic situation, as a result of the global recession, with an increase in unemployment from 5 to 25% in just ten years. The deterioration of the economic situation also saw a surge in crime that had already been perceived in previous years. Although Spencer had come to power campaigning against the endemic corruption in the Bird dynasty, the UPP government also faced its own scandals, which caused a rapid deterioration in the party's popularity. Spencer's government refused to extradite Allen Stanford, found guilty of fraud by a court in the United States and sentenced to 110 years in prison for running a billion-dollar business in which customers were encouraged to invest in certificates of deposit from Stanford International Bank of Antigua with false promises of security and high returns."Different parties similar woes - Reviewing the political affairs of 2007", Antigua Sun, 28 December 2007. In February 2013, a group of defrauded investors directly sued the government of Antigua and Barbuda, claiming that senior Antiguan officials knew about Stanford's plan and benefited from it. Although Spencer's government took steps to improve regulations in the country's financial environment, none of the officials accused of participating in the case were brought to trial.
During the second half of his term, the Spencer government faced severe criticism and judicial challenges against a number of controversial legislation. Spencer sought to implement a Citizenship by Investment Program, based on the one carried out by other countries in the English-speaking Caribbean and through which investors could directly acquire the citizenship and passports of Antigua and Barbuda by donating money to a charity or buying real estate. The project was about to be defeated in Parliament when four government senators voted against, which resulted in its dismissal. Similarly, an amendment to the Representation of the People Act, made in 2011, altered the composition and selection method of the Electoral Commission, while also decreasing the authority of the Election Supervisor. However, the measure was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, in response to a challenge filed by Labour. Labour also questioned the constitutionality of another amendment that established that voters should re-register for the 2014 elections. Re-enrollment began in September 2010 and was plagued with obstacles, including power outages, long queues and computer failures, and had to be extended for a fifth week.
Electoral system The elections were held under the Constitution of 1981 and the Representation of the People Act of 1975, supervised by the Antigua and Barbuda Electoral Commission. Under this constitutional framework, Antigua and Barbuda was a constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth of Nations with a parliamentary system based on the Westminster model. Queen Elizabeth II was the Queen of Antigua and Barbuda and ceremonial head of state, represented locally by governor-general Wilfred Jacobs, while the head of government and effective leader of the executive branch was the prime minister, subject to the confidence of the bicameral Parliament composed of the House of Representatives elected by popular vote through a single-member majority ballot for a maximum term of five years and a Senate appointed on the basis of the results of the House elections.
The House of Representatives is composed of seventeen seats elected in a first-past-the-post single-member system. The country is divided into seventeen constituencies, each of which is represented by a member of parliament elected by a simple majority of votes. The party or political group that manages to add a majority of at least nine of the seventeen seats forms a government and appoints the prime minister, while the leader of the party with the most seats who is not part of the government occupies the position of leader of the opposition. The Senate, for its part, is also composed of seventeen seats entirely appointed by the governor-general.
All Commonwealth of Nations citizens of at least eighteen years of age who meet the residence or domicile requirements have the right to vote in the parliamentary elections. Citizens who are at least twenty-one years of age, have resided in the country for a minimum of twelve months immediately preceding the day of nomination and are able to speak and read the English language fluently enough to allow them to participate actively in parliamentary procedures are qualified to become members of parliament. Persons who owe loyalty to a foreign state, ministers of religion, those who have a bankruptcy without liberal, people declared mentally unwell, sentenced to death or imprisonment for a period of at least twelve months, and those related to electoral crimes or guilty of certain crimes within the previous ten years are disqualified.
Campaign The United Progressive Party focused its campaign on its previous ten years in power, claiming to have succeeded in rebuilding the foundations for the country's sustainable development. Its manifesto, "The People's Charter", focused more on the party's accomplishments rather than the previous Labour government. The UPP committed to continuing with social development programs, such as scholarships for school uniforms and the school meal program. The party blamed the deterioration of the economic situation on the global crisis and proposed the implementation of tax relief and social programs. In the field of security, the UPP promised to address crime prevention and public order. For infrastructure, they proposed the construction of a new port, a modern performing arts center, and the exploration of space technology.
Labour focused on criticism of Spencer's management. Their manifesto was titled "The People's Rescue Plan" and presented a program to "rebuild" the country focused on reducing taxes, fighting crime and creating jobs. The ABLP accused the UPP of corruption, incompetence and mismanagement, claiming that the country had lost millions of dollars in corrupt contracts. The ABLP promised to abolish personal income tax, which had already been abolished during the Vere Bird government and then re-instated by Spencer. For security, it proposed the implementation of a comprehensive strategy to combat crime, the creation of "community councils" to collaborate in the reduction of crime, the transparent regulation of firearms licenses, the strengthening of police training and equipment, the intensification of education against drugs, the reduction of poverty and unemployment as preventive measures, and the strengthening of laws and penalties in crimes related to firearms and violence. Browne also highlighted the transition of party leadership, stating that the ABLP had demonstrated its ability to renew itself and build more dynamic leadership for the benefit of the country.
A minor party, Vere Bird III's Antigua and Barbuda True Labour Party, published a sixteen-page document titled "The Plan", in which the party was described as a "democratic alternative to the corrupt management of the ABLP". The ABTLP attacked the Spencer government's citizenship by investment program, saying it was the same as selling the country, and pledged to repeal the legislation on that regard. Like the ABLP, it promised to eliminate personal income tax to attract investors, as well as create employment in the light manufacturing industry and promote agriculture and aquaculture to supply the hotel industry. On the external level, he proposed to take greater steps towards Caribbean integration and to have rapprochements with the states of West Africa.
Party conventions
Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party