“At the moment I think it is too early for me to make a call as to who will win the elections,” Michael Mikey Pilgrim said in an interview with St. Lucia Times. Pilgrim, who was the deputy political leader of the now defunct Progressive Labour Party (PLP) served as interim prime minister of Saint Lucia from January to May 1982. He says however that he was expressing a personal view when he spoke on November 4.

“The elections will be keenly contested,” he says. “The last time there was a swing towards the Labour Party. This time, I think everything has been settled now and the electorate now will have to sit down, think, and decide which party in their opinion will be the best party to run this country in the years ahead.”

While he offered a general take on the pending general election, widely believed to be held before the end of this year, he says he would prefer commenting after the Prime Minister has given a date.  

“Because when he gives that date we know we have 21 days to wait until an election is held. So, during that time, a lot of things can change. People make mistakes. People say things they should not say and in politics three weeks is a long time,” Pilgrim says. 

He also reflected on the change in the style of campaigning, which now has the benefit of social media as compared to his active political days in the 80s.

 “A lot of young people, I believe, use the internet to follow the election campaign. As opposed to earlier days where we used to have various meetings in the different communities and the crowds would come, things changed now for a lot of reasons,” he says.

Among the reasons he pointed out why some may not follow the public meetings in person any more was because they had become more sophisticated and the level of crime in the country.

“People are afraid to go out and a lot of people decide now to stay at their home, listen to the news, either radio and television and form their own opinion as to who they would vote for and who they believe will win the elections, who is the better candidate,” he explained further.

He went on to say that it was not easy to ascertain the efficacy of the mass crowd public meeting style of SLP or the UWP’s town hall meetings.

“Which is more effective? I do not know. We’ll see, based on the results of the next election.”

Pilgrim is also calling for more of the issues to be discussed during those public engagements, leading up to the elections as opposed to some of the name calling and “maypwi” that have characterised some of the political platforms.

“Sometimes people get carried away and when they are on the platform they say things they should not say. Some people come out deliberately to say these things, so it is a question of the personalities involved. What they believe can sway an election,” he says.

“I believe that we should discuss some more issues on platforms, except in cases where the personalities become an issue, then that’s a different matter. But I believe we should fight clean elections but give the facts. The facts must be based on evidence and on what we have experienced.”

His final words of advice: “When people go on the platform it is always best to have their prepared thoughts, in advance, so when they get on the platform they can deliver what they believe is right and if they did that, the room for mistakes will be minimised considerably.”