ST. GEORGE’S, GRENADA, NOVEMBER 16TH – St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has declared he will not manipulate his Unity Labour Party’s (ULP) leadership succession process, drawing a stark contrast with Grenada’s Keith Mitchell, whom he accuses of orchestrating a “rigged” party convention that forced popular challenger Peter David to resign.

Speaking on the widely watched Bubb Report on Sunday, the 79-year-old leader, who faces general elections on November 27, made clear his rejection of what he described as Mitchell’s proprietorial approach to party leadership.

“I have never seen the Unity Labour Party as Keith Mitchell in Grenada sees it in proprietorial terms,” Gonsalves said. “I remember he told Peter David at his convention, ‘This is my party, I founded this, it belongs to me, and you, Peter, cannot come and take over my property.’”

The Vincentian leader, who has helmed the ULP since December 1998, emphasized his fundamentally different philosophy: “I’ve never viewed the Unity Labour Party as my property. In fact, I would have happily ceded leadership in these general elections…for the fact that the party as a whole, including all the members of cabinet and all the leaders in the party, said, Ralph, you have to take us over the hurdle one final time.”

Gonsalves pointedly addressed succession planning, stating: “I don’t have anybody whom I’m going to handpick and control from behind, as I understand Keith is doing in Grenada. I’m not doing that—you may not like me to say this, but that’s how I see it.”

When pressed on potential successors, Gonsalves declined to name names: “There are several persons in the ULP who can lead the ULP, and the party knows who those persons are. And I’m not going to name anybody, and I will not be involved in any exercise of that kind to manipulate anything.”

The Prime Minister described his 15-candidate slate as youthful and diverse: “There are fifteen candidates for the ULP. I am seventy-nine, I have energy and will, vision and skill…Then there are two persons in their sixties, and then the other twelve candidates are between thirty-five and fifty-three.”

The comparison to Grenada stems from the December 2024 NNP convention, where Peter David’s leadership challenge was allegedly undermined by Mitchell’s tactics, leading to David’s resignation from the party.

David is officially launching his D’Movement on Sunday, which recent polling suggests could garner enough support to hold the balance of power in a hung parliament.

David, widely regarded as one of the Caribbean’s most effective foreign ministers, has struck a nerve with voters frustrated by traditional party politics, positioning his movement as a “first-rate” alternative focused on sovereignty and democratic renewal.