Yearbook 2009
Antigua and Barbuda. According to countryaah, Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer and his center-left party The United Progressive Party (UPP) could remain in power after the March elections, when UPP got 51 percent of the vote against 47 percent for the Labor opposition party. It gave up nine of the 17 seats in Parliament, while the Labor Party had to settle for seven seats. Thus, UPP backed by three terms compared to the 2004 election, while the Labor Party increased by the same number of seats. As before, a mandate went to the Barbuda People’s Movement (BPM). The turnout was close to 80 percent.
Election analysts felt that the once powerful Labor Party with the Bird family at the forefront lost the election largely because of Bird’s close ties to billionaire Allen Stanford. Stanford, who lives in Texas but also has citizenship in Antigua and Barbuda, had a number of businesses in the Caribbean. When a major billion-dollar fraud was revealed around the Texas billionaire in the United States, its shadow also fell on the Bird family and Labor Party leader Lester Bird. See ABBREVIATIONFINDER for abbreviation AG which stands for the nation of Antigua and Barbuda.
Prime Minister Spencer’s new government was installed on March 16. Spencer took care of the Foreign Minister post himself. However, only a few months after the election victory, Deputy Prime Minister Wilmoth Daniel resigned after he was accused of corruption in connection with renting one of his houses to the Ministry of Health. Daniel also held the post of Minister of Health. He resigned as Deputy Prime Minister but retained a number of other government posts, including that of Minister of Health.