With Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state, St Vincent and the Grenadines is a member of the Commonwealth. The Governor General represents the Queen, although his role is mostly purely ceremonial.
The country’s parliamentary system has been handed down from the British, and is a democracy whose prime minister is Ralph Gonsalves, who leads the Unity Labour Party. This is currently the majority party in the House of Assembly, a one-house parliament with fifteen MPs and six senators.
One of the Governor General’s few roles is to appoint these senators, although he does so with advice from the Prime Minister and head of the opposition.
In law too, the country owes much to the British, and in common with other English-speaking Caribbean countries, St. Vincent’s judiciary is built on English common law. Even though the islands have eleven courts and a high court and court of appeal, the highest court is still the Privy Council in London.
Plans are being made to introduce a Caribbean Court of Justice, and therefore to replace the influence of London.
The country is divided into six parishes, all of which are governed directly by central government. Universal suffrage was gained after the Second World War. In 1969 the status of St Vincent was changed to Associate Statehood with the UK, which meant that the island given the ability to call for independence at any time, and meant that it was self-governing, with defence and foreign policy delegated to London. Independence was finally granted in 1979.
Sir James Mitchell’s National Democratic Party (NDP) was in power for almost twenty years, from 1984 to 2001, and Ralph Gonsalves’s Unity Labour Party has been in power since then. Gonsalves, or ‘Comrade Ralph’ as he is known, introduced measures to combat money laundering, and gave the go-ahead for the new international airport, which is still under construction.
The economy is mixed, with a reliance on banana production and tourism. Despite the luxury resorts, unemployment is relatively high. The country has no armed forces, although the police have a special service unit. The country joined the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, a group of countries led by Venezuela and Cuba, and as a result has benefited with cheaper electricity and machines to build the new airport.
