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The first Deputy leader of the opposition United Workers Party (UWP), Guy Joseph, has called for general elections before independence.
Joseph urged Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre to announce the poll rather than undertake a planned ruling Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) pre-independence ‘march of marches.’
Pierre told an SLP event in Laborie earlier this month he was calling out ‘the troops’ to march in support of his administration amid opposition abuse and lies.
“Philip J. Pierre, you don’t need a march before independence. We need elections before independence,” Guy Joseph declared to a UWP town hall meeting Sunday at the Gros Islet Primary School.
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“If you so confident that you are going to win all seventeen seats, call the election,” the former Castries South East MP asserted.
The electorate voted the UWP out of office at the July 26, 2021, elections, relegating the party to two of the eleven seats it formerly held in parliament.
UWP leader Allen Chastanet retained the Micoud South Seat, and Bradley Felix held on to Choiseul.
Guy Joseph told Sunday’s UWP town hall meeting that Prime Minister Pierre did not want Chastanet and Felix in the House of Assembly, so he should call the elections.
Citing a litany of the SLP’s shortcomings, including failure to cushion the impact of escalating commodity prices, Joseph declared that citizens could not continue to overpay for items for another two years and would not survive under the SLP government.
“Saint Lucia, if they do not want to call the election by choice, we have to force their hand to call the election by coming out on the 30th and making our voices heard,” the former Economic Development Minister told the audience.
He was referencing a planned November 30, 2023 anti-government march.
The protest would be the second such opposition event within two months.
The first occurred in Vieux Fort on October 14.
Pointing to fuel prices, Guy Joseph urged drivers to participate in the November 30 UWP protest.
“I expect every driver to park their vehicle on the 30th and join the march to save Saint Lucia,” he declared.
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