A major political showdown has erupted in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as opposition leader Ralph Gonsalves announced Wednesday that his Unity Labour Party (ULP) will mount both legal challenges and widespread political resistance against the ruling New Democratic Party (NDP)’s planned constitutional amendments, set for parliamentary debate next Tuesday.
Gonsalves, speaking on ULP-owned Star Radio, framed the proposed changes as an unprecedented power grab, saying “Today is a day where we have to commence our resistance to this New Democratic Party (NDP) dictatorship.” The amendments, he explained, are directly tied to an ongoing election petition challenging the eligibility of Prime Minister Godwin Friday and Foreign Minister Dwight “Fitz” Bramble to hold parliamentary seats.
The petition was filed by the two ULP candidates who ran against Friday and Bramble in the November 2024 general election, where the ULP—after 25 consecutive years in power—was ousted in a landslide result that left the party holding just one of parliament’s 15 seats. The ULP’s core argument rests on a longstanding constitutional provision that bars candidates who have voluntarily pledged allegiance to a foreign power. Friday and Bramble have openly acknowledged they hold Canadian citizenship acquired through voluntary naturalization, a status the opposition says violates the nation’s founding charter.
The two incumbent NDP politicians represent Northern Grenadines and East Kingstown, constituencies the ULP has never won in electoral history. Friday has served as a Member of Parliament since 2001, while Bramble first won his seat in 2020.
In response, the NDP argues that the constitution only requires parliamentary candidates to hold Commonwealth citizenship—a category that includes Canada—meaning Friday and Bramble’s election is fully legal. NDP Senator Jemalie John told local outlet Hot 97 FM Wednesday that the amendments are merely intended to clear up existing ambiguity in the constitution, not to interfere with the pending court case. “If there were no ambiguity, we would not have this case before the court right now,” John said, noting the central unresolved question is whether Commonwealth nations like Canada qualify as “foreign powers or states” under existing constitutional language.
According to Gonsalves, the proposed changes target Section 26(5) of the 1979 constitution, which outlines candidacy disqualifications. The amendments would add a formal definition of what constitutes a foreign power, and explicitly remove any reference to allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign state as a disqualifying factor. Most controversially, Gonsalves says the changes would be made retroactive to 1979, when the current constitution first took effect.
The court has already held an initial case management hearing in March, and has scheduled full legal arguments for July 28 through 30. Gonsalves pointed out that on the same morning as the initial hearing, Friday dismissed the petition as frivolous and a waste of judicial resources—a claim that rings hollow, the opposition leader argues, given the NDP’s push to rewrite the constitution to resolve the politicians’ legal vulnerability.
“Friday and Bramble, through their lawyers at the case management hearing, agreed that they are Canadian citizens and they have Canadian passports,” Gonsalves said. “The only questions that remain are legal ones, central among which is ‘Is Canada a foreign power or state?’ The second issue was that Friday and Bramble do have an allegiance, obedience and adherence to this foreign power state called Canada.”
Gonsalves argued that Friday and Bramble’s legal team’s push for the constitutional amendments amounts to an “insurance policy” after their initial argument that Commonwealth nations do not qualify as foreign powers failed to fully resolve their legal risk. He also highlighted a key point of NDP hypocrisy in the fight: a 2009 constitutional reform proposal that included a provision to allow dual citizens to run for office was opposed and ultimately voted down by the public, with the NDP—including Friday himself—leading the campaign against the measure.
“This is a political battle of massive proportions,” Gonsalves said, adding that the amendments are clearly intended to benefit the ruling party’s sitting leaders. In a dramatic appeal to end what he called the NDP’s “madness,” Gonsalves called on St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Governor-General to intervene by refusing to grant royal assent to the bills if they pass parliament.