Dear Editor,
An opinion poll suggests that the incumbent Unity Labour Party will win re-election in today’s general elections in St Vincent and the Grenadines. The Opposition National Democratic Party is trailing the incumbent in popular support and in a majority of seats as well as for the selection of Prime Minister, according to the poll, conducted by Barbados pollster Peter Wickham of Cadres. Should he win, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves would have defied odds giving him an unprecedented fourth term. He was previously counted out and won re-election in December 2010.
There are hundreds of Guyanese living in St Vincent, with most taking up residency during the period of the PNC dictatorship amidst food shortages, political victimisation and high unemployment. It is not known how they plan to vote. But they have been sympathetic to Gonsalves who has been supportive of them. Gonsalves has also been very supportive of the struggle against the PNC dictatorship during his student activist days and as a Professor in the Barbados-based UWI campus at Cave Hill since the 1970s.
There are 15 seats in the National Assembly, with eight needed to form the Government.  Grenada has the first-past-the-post system unlike Guyana where Members of Parliament are selected under Proportional Representation based on the percentage of votes received by a party.
The ULP is defending eight seats to NDP’s seven. The opinion poll puts ULP in the lead in the eight plus one more and gives the ULP a chance in two other seats for a total of 11. The poll says the ULP could get up to 13 seats.
For Prime Minister, the poll says some 61 per cent prefer Dr Gonsalves, while 37 per cent prefer Opposition Leader Arnhim Eustace, and two per cent prefer other.

Yours truly,
Vishnu Bisram