ANTIGUA | People of Antigua and Barbuda to elect a new government January 18, 2023

ST. JOHN'S, Antigua, December 21, 2022 - The people of  the twin island state of Antigua snd Barbuda, will go to the polls on January 18, 2023, to elect a new government, two months shy of a full five years since the last general elections on March 21 2018.

In announcing the election date last night, leader of the ruling Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) and  Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, urged supporters to ensure that his government is returned to power.

Speaking on Monday night  at the launch of candidates for the ruling Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP), Browne said  he asked the Governor General to issue the writs for the polls today.

"Last Friday, I dispatched a letter to his Excellency, Sir Rodney Williams, asking him to dissolve the Parliament. The Parliament had been duly dissolved," Browne told supporters.

"I have also asked our Governor General to issue the writs of elections tomorrow (today) 20th December, 2022.

Nomination Day will follow on December 28, 2022 and you can be assured that when the next general elections are held, there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth in the UPP (United Progressive Party) and that day will be on January 18, 2023."

When the general elections were last held in 2018, Browne’s Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) won 15 of the 17 seats, while the Harold Lovell led United Progressive Party (UPP), and the Barbuda People's Movement (BPM) won the other two seats.

In a statement this afternoon, on the party's Facebook page, leader of the main Opposition, UPP’s Harold Lovell, said “the ABLP has rushed into an 11th hour campaign which has distinguished itself not by tangible accomplishments of the past nine years, nor by credible plans and policies for the next five, but by money and excess that flies in the face of the people’s increasing disappointment, deprivation and disillusion.”

“With absolutely no shame and with no apologies, Prime Minister Gaston Browne is expecting you, the voter, to completely forget or at least put aside his failures over nearly ten years to deliver on his campaign promises,” Lovell declared.