Our Prayer

As we go to the polls in our first General Election since Independence in which the government is not an extension of the Bird dynasty, the eyes of the world are again on Antigua and Barbuda; as they were in March, 2004; when it seemed that all in CARICOM and the wider international community of nations were waiting for the Bird regime to fall.

Antigua and Barbuda was, at that time, a failed state and a rogue nation in the perception of donor countries and international organisations, agencies and institutions.

Though the United Progressive Party inherited a country in crisis, we swiftly proceeded to demonstrate the manifest capacity to surmount the toughest challenges confronting our nation.

In surprisingly short order, the UPP was able to stop the slide; introduce new standards of governance; ignite a surge of pride in the hearts of the people of our nation; ease the economic squeeze on the middle class and the vulnerable; win local and international investor confidence; transform tourism; restructure the economy; give hope to our nation’s youth; unleash the entrepreneurial spirit and enterprise of the Antiguan and Barbudan people; and generate sustained economic growth, with full employment.

The country is now caught in the vortex of the current global economic turbulence; a circumstance exacerbated by the collapse of the Stanford empire. This alone makes leadership the central issue in tomorrow’s elections.

The United Progressive Party offers tried and tested leadership you can trust; leadership that has operated on the unchanging credo of putting people first. The opposition, on the other hand, offers the nation a hydra-headed self-serving leadership aberration that is a formula for chaos, especially since it comprises the same failed and discredited group that took the country to fiscal anarchy and universal disgrace; all are defendants in court matters involving questions of integrity while they held high public office.

We now have among us observer teams from CARICOM, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and the Organisation of American States, who are in the country in response to the invitation I extended during the CARICOM Summit, here in St. John’s, last July; which I publicly reiterated on several subsequent occasions; and which I formally confirmed in writing in early January.

I am confident that all in our country are hopeful that after the votes are counted, and the results declared, the judgment of the observer teams, and the world, will be that our General Election was free and fair, peaceful and free from fear, it’s conduct a model in the exercise of democracy; and that the results accurately reflect the collective will of the Antiguan and Barbudan people.

Let that be our prayer.