Antigua & Barbuda - Politics

Key facts

• Last Election: March 2009
• Next Election: 2014
• Head of State: HM Queen Elizabeth ll, represented by Governor-General HE Mrs Louise Lake-Tack (2007-)
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer
• Ruling Party: United Progressive Party
• Independence: 1st November 1981

The Antigua Labour Party (ALP) had won almost every election since 1960, its position enhanced by divisions within the opposition. However, during the late 1980s divisions also appeared in the ALP, precipitated by allegations of financial misdealing in 1986, and of armaments sales in 1990, both involving senior government ministers. These matters led to ongoing parliamentary controversy.

This reached crisis point in 1991 with a number of cabinet resignations and in early 1992 there were strikes and demonstrations calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Vere C Bird. In April 1992 three opposition parties merged to form the United Progressive Party (UPP). There was then an ALP leadership election in May 1992 resulting in a dead heat between Lester Bird (son of Vere Bird Sr) and John St Luce. Vere Bird Sr remained in office until a further round of leadership elections in September 1993 gave the party leadership to Lester Bird who became prime minister while Vere Bird Jr (another son of Vere Bird Sr) was elected ALP Chairman.

The ALP won its fifth consecutive election victory, and its third since independence, in March 1994, with a reduced but still substantial majority: 11 of the 17 seats and 54.4% of the votes. Five seats went to the UPP led by Baldwin Spencer, and one to the Barbuda People’s Movement (BPM).

Elections for the Barbuda Council in March 1997 gave all seats to the BPM, defeating the New Barbuda Development Movement, an offshoot of the ALP. The BPM then held all nine seats.

The ALP led by Lester Bird won the general election in March 1999 (in the presence of a Commonwealth observer group), gaining 12 of the 17 seats – one more than in 1994 – but with a slightly reduced share of 53% of the popular vote. The UPP took four seats, with 44% of the votes, and the BPM one seat. The extra seat gave the government a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives.

Vere Bird Sr, who led the country to independence in 1981, and was prime minister until he retired from active politics before the 1994 general election, died in June 1999 at the age of 89.

At the request of the prime minister, a two-person Commonwealth expert group visited the country in July 2000, to consult the people and review the ‘operations of the arrangements’ between Antigua and Barbuda as established at a constitutional conference at Lancaster House, London, in 1980. In November 2000, at St John’s, Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon presented the group’s report and recommendations to the government, saying that implementation of these recommendations would bring an end to long-standing discord between the islands of Antigua and Barbuda.

In April 2003 the Electoral Office of Jamaica was engaged to compile a new voters’ list and collect photos and fingerprints to be used on identity cards, in preparation for the next general election. This work and the election itself in March 2004 were observed by a Commonwealth expert team. The UPP won the contest with 55% of the votes and 12 seats, and Baldwin Spencer became prime minister, ending a 28-year run of power for the ALP and the Bird family.

In February, the UPP, led by Spencer, returned to power with a reduced majority, winning nine of the 17 seats with 50.9% of the vote; the Antigua Labour Party took seven seats (47.2%) and the Barbuda People's Movement one (1.1%). During the election campaign, the UPP had promised to sell off shares of state-owned corporations to the public while the main opposition ALP had said that it would introduce tax cuts. Turnout was 80%.

Commonwealth Country Profiles

Related Websites:

• Government of Antigua and Barbuda
• Commonwealth of Nations