Prime Minister Gaston Browne made the announcement at a rally at which he introduced his Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party’s candidates for the polls. Photo: Antigua Observer

After hinting late last week that elections would be held “in coming weeks”, Prime Minister Gaston Browne announced March 21 as the date for the polls at a rally of his Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) on Saturday.

Parliament is due to be dissolved today and the election writ will be issued tomorrow, Browne told supporters, as he expressed confidence that the ABLP would be victorious over the other political parties and take all the seats in Parliament.

“I am giving them 21 days to give them 17-none,” he declared before giving the election date.

Browne explained that the reason he called the election a year early was to protect the EC$1.5 billion in projects that his government has earmarked.

“Our primary purpose for calling the election early is not about politics, it is about development….We can’t allow the destructive forces to stymie the progress we have made,” he said.

Browne urged candidates not to be complacent, despite the “weakness” of the main opposition United Progressive Party (UPP), and to ensure they hit the campaign trail.

The ABLP, the UPP, the new Democratic National Alliance, and the Antigua and Barbuda True Labour Party will contest the general elections.

The ABLP won 14 seats in the last election in 2014 while the UPP took the other three.

UPP leader Harold Lovell, responding to the election announcement, said the early polls were a sign of a failed ABLP government.

“The truth that all of us outside the Browne circle know is that life is harder than ever after nearly four years of this wicked government,” he said, adding that the administration had failed to deliver on its manifesto promises.

And he urged the electorate to “use this election opportunity to vote wisely, consider what you had yesterday, how much you have lost today and whether you and your children will lose or gain tomorrow”.