分类： politics

A transformative community development project aimed at building a multi-purpose hub at Tindale Park is moving steadily forward, with land acquisition talks entering their final phase, according to Daryll Matthew, Antigua’s Education Minister and candidate for the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP). Matthew made the announcement during a recent appearance on ABS Television’s candidate-focused public affairs programme “Know Your Candidates”.

At the core of the land acquisition process is a planned property swap with a local private family for the 1.5-acre parcel sitting at the upper end of Tindale Road. After months of back-and-forth negotiations, Matthew confirmed that discussions have reached an advanced, final stage that will soon allow the government to take ownership of the plot.

Once the land is secured, the site will be redeveloped into an integrated community hub designed to meet a range of local needs. The centerpiece of the project is a two-story mixed-use building that will serve dual purposes for residents and cultural groups. The upper level will be operated as a public community center, available for neighborhood gatherings, after-school youth programs, and a wide range of community-led events. The lower level will be converted into a renovated, purpose-built bandhouse for the local Pandemonium Steel Orchestra, giving the beloved cultural group a permanent, improved home.

Beyond the central building, the development plan allocates dedicated space to support local micro-entrepreneurs. A cluster of small, individual units will be built to form a small business hub, with capacity for roughly 10 to 12 small operators. Matthew noted that the spaces are designed to accommodate common neighborhood small businesses including barbershops, local bakeries, and other independent trades, creating new economic opportunities for residents.

The project also includes public recreational amenities that are already partially secured. A fenced public playground and open green park space will be added to the site, with all equipment for the playground already sourced through community donations.

Unlike many government-led development projects, this initiative will not rely on direct public financing. Instead, it will be funded through a blended model of private sector donations and community contribution. Matthew explained that he has already held discussions with potential private donors, who have committed to contributing materials such as steel, while local community members will volunteer labor and organize public fundraisers to cover remaining costs.

For Matthew, the Tindale Park project is a key part of a broader push to address development challenges in the densely populated constituency he represents. For years, a severe shortage of available government-owned land has limited the ability to carry out public projects that improve local quality of life, making this community-led initiative a critical step forward. Matthew emphasized that the project is a binding campaign promise should he win re-election, stressing that he would never make a commitment that is not grounded in realistic, achievable plans.

In a passionate address to party supporters at a recent campaign rally, Jamale Pringle, head of Antigua and Barbuda’s United Progressive Party (UPP), has laid out a key electoral reform pledge that would remove longstanding barriers to political participation for the country’s large diaspora community. If his party secures victory in upcoming elections, Pringle says one of the earliest legislative priorities of a UPP administration will be cutting the mandatory in-country residency requirement for voter registration from more than four weeks to just 14 days.

Pringle argues that the current framework creates an unnecessary, unfair hurdle for Antiguans and Barbudans who have built lives outside the country’s borders. Many diaspora members cannot afford to take more than a month off work or uproot their lives solely to meet the registration threshold, effectively locking them out of exercising their democratic right to vote in national elections. He emphasized that this exclusion runs counter to the contributions overseas nationals make to Antigua and Barbuda’s economy and social fabric, noting that many retain deep ties to their home country and continue to invest in its long-term growth.

To underscore his point about the arbitrary nature of the current 30+ day rule, Pringle drew a comparison to the country’s popular citizenship-by-investment program, which processes approval for new citizens in just five business days. “If they can give citizenship by investment five days, we can give our people in the diaspora less for them to be able to vote in Antigua and Barbuda,” he told the gathered crowd.

Beyond cutting the registration waiting period, Pringle also pledged that a UPP government would end what he frames as systemic discrimination against overseas citizens. “There will be no discrimination, no more punishment of our own people who continue to love their country and support our economy,” he said. The policy proposal positions expanding diaspora voting access as a core justice issue for the UPP ahead of upcoming electoral contests, aiming to court support from both domestic voters sympathetic to the reform and diaspora communities who have long advocated for change to the country’s voting rules.

As Antigua and Barbuda prepares for its upcoming general election on April 30, Dr. Philmore Benjamin, the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) candidate for the St Mary’s North constituency, has laid out a bold multi-part plan to transform elder care across the region, positioning improvements to senior support services as one of his top policy priorities if elected.

Drawing from decades of experience as a medical practitioner, Benjamin argues that the current system of elder care focuses too heavily on treating acute illness, and fails to address the full spectrum of needs that seniors have to thrive. In his view, holistic care must center on preserving dignity, encouraging social connection, and nurturing both physical and mental wellness, rather than just managing health conditions.

At the core of his proposal is the introduction of purpose-built adult day care facilities, spaces designed specifically to give older adults a dedicated community hub to gather, connect with peers, and engage in group activities. Benjamin explains that regular social interaction in these age-friendly spaces helps seniors maintain sharper cognitive function, reducing the risk of isolation that often contributes to mental health decline among older populations.

Beyond social spaces, Benjamin is pushing for expanded accessible recreational programming tailored to seniors’ varying ability levels. He notes that even low-impact, non-competitive physical activities can deliver meaningful improvements to seniors’ quality of life, and structured recreational opportunities deliver dual benefits by boosting both physical fitness and social connection. “There’s no real limit for you to be doing something recreational,” Benjamin emphasized, noting that consistent gentle activity can keep seniors engaged and active longer.

The candidate’s plan also addresses key structural barriers to senior participation: transportation and public space accessibility. He has pledged to upgrade infrastructure and transit services to ensure that seniors with limited mobility can easily access community programs and public spaces, allowing them to remain active participants in local life rather than being pushed to the margins of community activity. For Benjamin, this inclusion is a core goal of the reforms: these initiatives are designed to help seniors “feel a part of the livelihood” of the constituency, rather than being sidelined as they age.

Elder care reform is just one plank of Benjamin’s broader campaign platform, which also includes pledges for systemic healthcare reform across Antigua and Barbuda, expanded youth development programs, targeted infrastructure upgrades across St Mary’s North, and strengthened community-focused constituent representation. With voting day just weeks away, the candidate has made clear that improving outcomes for the country’s aging population is a personal as well as political priority, noting “I have a passion to improve elderly care in this country.”

As the April 30 general election draws near, the tight race for the St. John’s Rural North parliamentary seat has put basic public services and infrastructure at the center of campaign discourse. Incumbent candidate and current Tourism Minister Charles Fernandez laid out his constituency’s most pressing unmet needs in a recent “Know Your Candidate” interview, confirming that road networks, potable water access, and community healthcare remain the top three priorities for area residents, even as ongoing work addresses longstanding gaps.

Fernandez emphasized that transportation infrastructure tops the list of resident concerns, a challenge his team has prioritized throughout his current term. He pointed to active upgrade and repair projects across multiple communities in the constituency, including Yorks, Cedar Grove and Mount Pleasant — regions where some neighborhoods still lacked fully paved roads before current works got underway. To speed up delivery of these projects, Fernandez confirmed that additional construction resources and financing are on the way. A third paving machine will soon be deployed to expand work capacity, while new funding will allow crews to extend upgrades to more neighborhoods across the constituency.

A reliable, consistent potable water supply is the second core issue dominating Fernandez’s agenda. He noted that the national government has already channeled major investments into expanding water production and distribution, including upgrades to reverse osmosis treatment facilities and overhauls of existing pipeline networks. These investments have already delivered measurable results: daily water output across the area now sits at roughly 11 million gallons, and that number is projected to climb further as new treatment capacity comes online in the coming months. Even with this progress, Fernandez acknowledged that legacy infrastructure challenges persist, noting that aging pipes and outdated control valves continue to cause service disruptions in some neighborhoods. “It is still a challenge in some areas… it’s not perfect,” he said, confirming that full system modernization remains a key goal for a new term.

On the healthcare front, Fernandez highlighted improving community-level access to care as a non-negotiable priority. The core of this push, he explained, is expanding service offerings at local clinics to reduce the need for residents to travel longer distances for routine care. He publicly backed plans to extend clinic operating hours and increase the number of full-time doctors assigned to local facilities, changes designed to accommodate residents who cannot attend appointments during standard daytime working hours. “That is something that I welcome immensely… and something I think is needed,” he said of the proposal.

Fernandez confirmed that if voters return him to office, these three core priorities will continue to guide his work, with an unwavering focus on delivering the basic public services that shape daily life for every constituent in St. John’s Rural North. With the race widely expected to be one of the most closely contested contests in the upcoming general election, the outcome will likely hinge on candidates’ ability to convince voters they can deliver tangible progress on these high-priority infrastructure and service issues.

As Antigua and Barbuda enters the final week of campaigning ahead of its hotly contested general election, a leading political analyst has mapped out the narrow pathways to power for both major parties, identifying three toss-up constituencies that will almost certainly decide who forms the next government.

Political commentator Arvel Grant has highlighted City East, St. George, and St. Mary’s North as the critical battlegrounds that will swing the election, pointing out that all three seats were decided by margins of less than 3 percentage points in the most recent contest. These razor-thin past results have transformed the three constituencies into unpredictable, highly competitive races where neither side can take victory for granted. According to Grant, neither the ruling Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) nor the opposition United Progressive Party (UPP) can reasonably claim to hold a safe lead in any of the three districts heading into polling day.

For the UPP, the roadmap to a parliamentary majority requires a careful combination of holds and gains, Grant explains. The opposition must first retain all six seats it won in the 2023 election, secure upset victories in both City East and St. Mary’s North, and count on its long-standing coalition partner the Barbuda People’s Movement to hold onto its single Barbudan seat. If the UPP pulls off this sequence of outcomes, it will clinch exactly the number of parliamentary seats needed to form a new administration, Grant notes.

Meanwhile, the incumbent ABLP faces a simpler but still highly uncertain path to re-election. The ruling party only needs to hold onto its current base of eight core seats and win just one of the three key marginal constituencies to cross the threshold for a majority, Grant says. Even a single gain from the toss-up seats will be enough for the ABLP to retain power if it holds its existing strongholds.

Beyond the three critical battlegrounds, Grant also flagged three additional constituencies to watch on election night: Rural East, Rural North, and St. Paul’s. These districts have a well-documented history of swinging between parties between elections, with voter loyalties shifting in response to changing national political sentiment and hyper-local issues that resonate with regional electorates, he explained. Unlike safer, solidly partisan seats, these districts remain fluid and up for grabs.

Grant also emphasized two overarching factors that could upend all pre-election projections: voter registration rates and overall voter turnout on polling day. High levels of new voter re-registration have historically tended to benefit opposition parties, he noted, while low overall voter turnout creates volatility and makes final results far harder to predict. The analyst urged both major parties to prioritize aggressive get-out-the-vote operations to mobilize their base supporters over the final week of campaigning.

In closing, Grant reaffirmed that the election will be decided at the margins, with the road to parliamentary majority running directly through the three key contested constituencies. “Ultimately, the path to government will run through the three marginal seats,” he said. “Whatever happens, the election will likely be determined by City East, St. George or St. Mary’s North.”

As Antigua and Barbuda prepares for its April 30 general election, a seasoned local physician has made transforming the nation’s healthcare system the centerpiece of his bid for public office. Dr. Philmore Benjamin, the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) candidate running for the St Mary’s North constituency, laid out his comprehensive restructuring plan during a televised and radio interview on ABS Television/Radio Thursday morning, drawing on 30 years of frontline medical experience to frame his policy agenda.

Decades of working directly with patients in the community have given Benjamin a unique perspective on the systemic flaws driving poor health outcomes for local residents, he explained during the appearance. “As a practicing physician for the past 30 years, I have seen a lot and I have learned a lot,” Benjamin said, emphasizing that many of the health struggles citizens face can be traced back to misaligned policy decisions.

For Benjamin, fixing the nation’s healthcare system starts at its most foundational level: community-level primary care. “Primary health care starts at the level of the clinics. And that is the first contact with patients,” he noted. His proposed multi-tiered model aims to expand the scope of care available at existing village clinics, while introducing a new network of polyclinics to fill the current gap between basic community care and tertiary hospital services.

Under this plan, polyclinics would bring diagnostic services and specialist care that are currently only available at the main tertiary hospital directly to local communities. “We’d expect to have now some specialist services in these clinics… rather than going to the hospital maybe to get an X-ray, maybe ultrasound,” Benjamin explained. By shifting non-critical care from the main Sir Lester Bird Medical Centre to community and polyclinic settings, the plan directly targets the persistent overcrowding that has strained the island’s flagship hospital. “To fix that, we have to fix primary health care,” Benjamin said, adding that a hospital should never be forced to function as a frontline primary care clinic.

Beyond the core polyclinic and primary care expansion, Benjamin’s plan also includes expanded access to geriatric physiotherapy, increased at-home care services for vulnerable patients, and stronger public health education focused on preventing both communicable and non-communicable diseases.

While his campaign platform covers five key pillars – including youth development, environmental stewardship, elder care, and public safety – Benjamin stressed that healthcare remains the backbone of any meaningful effort to raise local quality of life. “My intention really is to improve standard of living and quality of life,” he said.

Having practiced medicine in the St Mary’s North community for more than 30 years, Benjamin noted that his deep, long-standing ties to the area have shaped a campaign rooted in personal familiarity and public service. Many constituents already know him through his decades of medical work, and voter response has been largely positive so far, he reported. “So far, so good,” he said of the early reception on the campaign trail.