Prime Minister Gaston Browne and his Antigua and Barbuda Labor Party secured an unprecedented fourth consecutive term in office, riding a snap election to an overwhelming parliamentary majority that reduced the main opposition to a single-seat remnant, according to official results released early Friday.
The ABLP won 15 of the country’s 17 seats, a landslide that shattered the United Progressive Party’s previous five-seat bloc. UPP leader Jamale Pringle was the sole survivor among his party’s candidates. On the opposition bench he will be joined by Trevor Walker, who retained the Barbuda People’s Movement constituency — a seat Walker has held in every election since 2004, except for a single interruption in 2014.
The election was held two years before the constitutional deadline. The abbreviated campaign turned on pocketbook concerns: the rising cost of living and the government’s record on infrastructure development.
“We will build one nation united and inclusive where all who are willing to come together under the banner of one Antigua and Barbuda will share in the reward of their efforts,” Browne told supporters after the vote.
Election officials reported that polling stations across the twin-island nation operated efficiently. Browne and Attorney General Steadroy Benjamin were sworn in on Friday morning. The remaining members of the Cabinet are scheduled to take their oaths on Tuesday.