In a fiery address to supporters at a joint Labour Day rally hosted by the Antigua Trades and Labour Union (AT&LU) and the ruling Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) this Monday, ABLP Chairman E.P. Chet Greene has made a bold prediction: a by-election will be called in the swing constituency of All Saints East & St. Luke within six months, driven by mounting internal unrest within the opposition United Progressive Party (UPP) that he claims will force UPP leader Jamale Pringle to step down from his parliamentary seat.
Greene doubled down on his claim that the opposition bloc is entering a period of accelerating collapse, telling assembled rally attendees that internal factions within the UPP are growing increasingly vocal in their opposition to Pringle’s leadership. This growing pressure, he argued, will leave the UPP leader with no choice but to resign his parliamentary seat, triggering a fresh contest for the constituency that has remained a key battleground between the two major parties since the April 30 general election.
In that general election, ABLP’s candidate Lamin “Lammy” Newton lost the All Saints East & St. Luke seat by only a narrow margin. Greene framed a potential by-election as a critical second chance for Newton, telling supporters he expects the ABLP candidate to secure victory in a fresh vote. This win, he added, would help the ruling party complete what he described as a “clean sweep” of parliamentary seats across the nation.
Beyond his prediction of an imminent by-election, Greene used the high-profile Labour Day platform to launch a pointed critique of the UPP’s recent performance as the official opposition. He argued that the party has failed entirely to fulfill its core democratic role as a check on ruling party power, pointing to high-profile internal disagreements over key policy issues including the national government’s COVID-19 public health response and its cruise ship tourism regulations as evidence of the UPP’s ineffectiveness. “None of us in this country can honestly claim that the UPP has been an effective opposition,” Greene stated.
Notably, even amid his sharp criticism of the current opposition, Greene stopped short of rejecting the role of opposing political voices in a functional democracy. He emphasized that robust democratic governance requires a credible, effective opposition, and rejected any push to eliminate dissenting political views from national discourse.
Greene also used the rally to outline a new transparency and engagement pledge for the ruling ABLP, announcing that all elected ABLP parliamentary representatives will now be required to host quarterly public town hall meetings in their respective constituencies. The policy, he explained, is designed to keep elected officials directly connected to the constituents they represent, reinforcing the government’s commitment to democratic accountability. “That’s the balance we strike for democracy: constant engagement with the people,” Greene said.
As of Tuesday, the UPP has not issued any public response to Greene’s claims and predictions, leaving open questions about the actual level of internal pressure facing Pringle and the party’s future in the constituency.