Two Caribbean Community (Caricom) nations head to the polls early next month, and a third head of government is readying to name a date, capping one of the busiest electoral years for the 15-member bloc in recent history.
Guyana, which hosts the Caricom, will vote on September 1, while on Sunday night, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness ordered the nation to get ready to cast ballots on September 3, two days after Guyana.
In St. Vincent in the Eastern Caribbean, the regional subgrouping of Caricom is awaiting a date from Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves for when the multi-island federation will vote with the Grenadines — the constitutional deadline is November.
When done and dusted, 2025 might be one of the busiest electoral years for the bloc and its associate members in recent memory, with elections already completed in Trinidad, Suriname, Belize, Anguilla, Curacao, the Turks and Caicos islands, Bermuda, and the Cayman Islands.
As Guyana and Jamaica step up campaigning, Prime Minister Phillip Davis of the Bahamas recently ended speculation that his archipelago off Florida will vote this year, saying his administration has much more work to do and will face the polls next year rather than 2025, as the main opposition had been demanding.
Speaking at a mass rally in the capital on Sunday, Holness ended speculation about which day in September Jamaicans will vote. His administration’s constitutional mandate runs out in September, meaning he had little choice but to name a date quickly. Nominees for parliament will present their lists on August 18.
Holness, 53, is chasing history in seeking a third consecutive term. If he succeeds, he would be tied with elder statesman P. J Patterson, who racked up three consecutive terms before retiring nearly two decades ago.
“I don’t need to tell you that this is the best-performing government in the history of Jamaica. This is the strongest, most active, and most strategic government ever,” Holness told a sea of party supporters clad in green party attire. He noted that his labor party (JLP) successfully guided the nation through the Covid pandemic and last year’s battering from Hurricane Beryl, “and we never missed a beat. We take the resources and we make them more. We are good stewards and we ask you the people, the masters, to make a judgement, to make a choice on who will steward your affairs.”
The main opposition People’s National Party (PNP), led by white Jamaican attorney Mark Golding, is fancying its chances of a major turnaround from 2020 when it performed so poorly that it picked up only 14 of the 63 parliamentary seats. Its confidence has been buoyed by its strong showing in recent local government elections, where it had competed competitively with labor. Polls are also showing that the electorate might be tiring of labor, with a slew of corruption scandals at the feet of Holness and other party functionaries. Still, Holness said he is confident of a third term.
“In just a decade, we have transformed Jamaica from the brink of economic collapse into the strongest economy since our independence,” he said. “We have conquered the challenges of macroeconomic stability and debt reduction — hard-fought victories that have freed us from the cycle of crisis after crisis. It is now time for us to build on the strong foundation that we have created to focus on generating robust growth that will deliver more opportunities for all Jamaicans to pursue their God-given talents and fulfil their dreams and aspirations.”
For his part, Golding said his party is ready to take the government. “Comrades, we have been waiting for this moment for a very long time. We have been walking the length and breadth of Jamaica,” Golding said. “The highways and byways, the hills and the valleys, and everywhere we go as a united party, the people say they are ready for change, and all we have wanted for so long is for the government to change and to call the election so that we can move forward as a nation. Obviously, they were running scared because no government leaves it to the 11th hour, and really, the election called itself because they were out of time,” he said, in direct response to Holness’s announcement.