UPP wins Antigua Elections

The incumbent United Progressive Party (UPP) has managed to hold on to power for a second straight term but with a reduced majority, following yesterday’s general election that has also rekindled the political career of one former prime minister in Antigua and Barbuda.



Preliminary results show that the UPP won nine of the 17 seats declared to re-take the leadership reins while seven seats went to the Antigua Labour Party (ALP), whose leader Lester Bird, a former prime minister, was among the winners.



However, despite an improved showing, the ALP, which held power for 28 unbroken years prior to 2004, failed in its bid to unseat the UPP, which has been given a new mandate to govern.



In the last general election, the UPP copped 12 seats with the ALP taking four and the Barbuda People’s Movement (BPM) one seat.



Bird’s victory reverses the 2004 defeat he suffered at the hands of Finance Minister Errol Cort. The preliminary results show Bird polling 1,939 votes, compared to Cort\'s tally of 1,843, while the leader of the fledgling Organisation for National Development (OND) Melford Nicholas mustered 71 votes.



The outcome in the St. John’s Rural East constituency renews the Bird family domination of the country’s political landscape even though the aging politician had previously indicated that Thursday’s general election would likely be his last.



As the 71 year old ALP leader prepares to re-enter parliament after a five-year absence, Trevor Walker will also be hoping to hang on to power in Barbuda after claiming victory there by the most slender of margins.