I’ve witnessed every General Elections in Saint Lucia since 1974 and in the 51 years hence, have never seen local electors so anxious to vote.

I have a long list of fellow citizens – at home and abroad — with travel plans for November and December, who’re seriously perplexed about if and when to book flights, fearing they end-up not being home on Election Day.

I also have a longer list of persons who call every day to ask: ‘When will the Prime Minister call the election?’

The gentleman in me does try to tame exuberant anxieties by urging such inquirers to avoid increasing their already-high blood pressure by trying to predict the unpredictable.

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But, the teaser in me also asks some whether, as Prime Minister, they would call the elections ‘Early, or late?’

Interestingly, with two-thirds of the population born after Independence (1979), most haven’t realized that General Elections are always called on a Monday.

The analyst in me, therefore, is still uncertain whether this Election Day anxiety many exude is because they realize and wish to exercise that once-in-five-years power, or simply because they want to vote sooner than later, to ‘get it over with…’

The opposition is understandably afraid of a longer campaign because of cost implications and since every ruling party rally apparently gets bigger every weekend, so the Opposition Leader is pressuring the Prime Minister to ‘Ring the Bell’.

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The island’s two major parties continue mobilizing all their resources to ensure every supporter votes on Election Day and the toxic levels of anxiety in both camps is a safe indication that few will stay home on Election Day.

Prime Ministers always play their election-date cards close to their chests and Saint Lucia’s is no-different, obviously enjoying holding the opposition in trapeze-style limbo, dancing on a tightrope above broken bottles in unbearable suspense and miserable mystery.

He legally has between next Monday and the end of October 2026 – eleven months – to choose a date and the only promise he’s on record as making is that the next General Elections will not go beyond the constitutional time-limit.

But the Philip J. Pierre I know is also one whose mind is ever-clicking and always quite-aware of the vicissitudes of an electoral system, including that no election is won until the last vote is counted.

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So, whether he decides to yield to public or opposition pressure or remain unpredictable is neither here nor there, as he can also be expected to only decide on a date most appropriate to him — and his party.

Another point: Neither of the two major parties, since Independence, have called a ‘snap election’ – except in 1987, when the then-ruling party was dissatisfied with the 9-8 result that followed the April 6 election, so Prime Minister John Compton dissolved the parliament on April 14 and called new elections on April 30.

Fatefully, the PM’s faith in a better result from a second poll in 24 days was badly-misplaced and the electors returned the same result — resulting in the Prime Minister inviting then-opposition MP for Laborie, Neville Cenac, to ‘Cross the Floor’ and boost the ruling party’s majority to a safer 10-7.

Cenac would immediately join the Cabinet as Foreign Affairs Minister — and later knighted and appointed Governor General by the previous (2016-2021) administration.

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But, expecting today’s Prime Minister to simply ‘hurry-up’ to announce an election date just because the Opposition Leader is demanding one, is politically far-fetched.

Anyone wishing to predict the election date will only do so on bare speculation.

Indeed, among the issues to be considered is the commissioning of the St. Jude Hospital, a truly national affair being anticipated by all Saint Lucians, but which the opposition will naturally wish to avoid – and thus it’s call for an early election, either later this month, or before Christmas.

Also to-be-considered, however, is the demonstrated ability of the desperate opposition to say and do desperate things – like promising, four years later, everything it failed to even consider during its last five-year term.

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The opposition is choosing the easy way out, promising to ‘do better’ everything the present administration has done – from multiplying loans for youth enterprises by five times (from $5,000 to $25,000), to giving a stipend and an office to the National Youth Council (NYC) and appointing youth representatives on every government board.

But this same party held office twice (for ten years) since 2006 and never once did any of these ideas shoot-up or take root.

This opposition party has always accused this ruling party of being ‘soft on crime’ and demanded ‘stronger measures’ to lower homicide rates by ‘taking the fight’ to local gangs.

Now, the party that launched an ‘Operation (to) Restore Confidence’, that led to a nationally embarrassing regional inquiry into alleged extrajudicial police killings of suspected gang-members, is openly and warmly courting local gang leaders into shotgun marriages through short-term partisan political partnerships.

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A senior opposition candidate trying to regain his lost seat against a former active member of his constituency group is under visible pressure and the way his campaign has descended into crass attacks on the female challenger continues raising eyebrows.

Then there’s the Opposition Leader’s public confession that he was never satisfied with the life the Good Lord gave him…

And now the opposition has painted the Dennery Segment musical genre in its party colour – and is doubling-down on not only downsizing the spectacularly-successful Saint Lucia Jazz and Arts Festival, to allow for celebrating Carnival throughout July – both of which it could also have done in office but didn’t.

All that said, it would be best for preserving and maintaining national mental health and sanity, easing unnecessary tensions and shedding the suspense of unnecessary anxiety if voters were to simply allow the Prime Minister to decide whether he wants to call the General Elections before Christmas, or drag the race and stretch the pace closer to the farthest finishing line.

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