St Vincent votes NO in referendum, keeps the Queen as Head of State

The government of Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves suffered a stunning defeat Wednesday when a clear majority voted against a new constitution in a referendum. The vote means the Queen remains the Head of State.

Preliminary figures from the island's Elections Office show that 55.6 per cent of the electorate supported the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) and voted NO. The government YES side received 43.1 per cent.

The government had campaigned for a new constitution to replace the one handed down to the island nation upon independence from Britain in 1979.

When he voted for the YES side Wednesday Gonsalves said the seven year exercise of public consultations and parliamentary debates on the new document should be seen as having “lit a beacon to shine a light, to illuminate the pathways against the remnants of colonialism in the interest of our people’s humanisation”.

The government fell way below the required two thirds majority it needed to pass the constitution, gaining under 50 per cent.

Political commentator Andrew Cummings said many people considered Wednesday's vote a political one and suggested that the government may find it difficult to recover from the defeat.

Social activist and political commentator Renwick Rose said if the votes on Wednesday were in a general election the opposition would have won 13 of the 15 constituencies.

Rose suggested that the opposition could now press for an early election, adding that the governing Unity Labour Party (ULP) may find it difficult to attract new candidates.

A spokesperson for the NO side said the vote says "the people did not want the bill but it may also be saying that they no longer want the ULP."

Anesia Baptiste of the Thusian Institute for Religious Liberty, which joined with the NDP in campaigning against the proposed constitution, said: "The government owes the people an apology for the contemptuous attitude displayed."

She added, "Well the so-called ‘recalcitrant minorities’ have spoken, Dr. Gonsalves, and it has proven to be an even larger majority than what the ULP received when it last took office."

Trinidad and Tobago is currently engaged in an exercise to draft a new constitution that would likely include an executive president.

In the current 1976 constitution that established Trinidad and Tobago as a Republic within the Commonwealth, the President replaced the Queen as the head of state, but she is still recognized by Trinidad and Tobago as head of the Commonwealth.

The draft that the Manning administration is proposing is very controversial. Critics have said it vests all power in a president who will not be elected by the people in a one-person-one-vote election.

Two of the country's most respected constitutional experts - Sir Ellis Clarke and Prof. Selwyn Ryan - have distanced themselves from the constitutional exercise. Sir Ellis was the principal author of the present constitution and was Trinidad and Tobago's first president.

Opposition critics have called it a formula to establish a dictatorship. Prime Minister Patrick Manning and opposition leader Basdeo Panday met earlier this month to discuss constitutional reform and agreed to continue their discussions.

Some opposition members have called that meeting a conspiracy to try to impose a new constitution on the people without a vote on the matter.