Saint Lucian general election, 2006

The Saint Lucian general election of 2006 took place in Saint Lucia on 11 December 2006. The election was fought between the Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) and the United Workers Party (UWP) which between them dominated politics in Saint Lucia. The results saw the governing Saint Lucia Labour Party lose the election to the United Workers Party led by John Compton, which gained eight seats to hold an eleven to six majority.

The last two elections in 1997 and 2001 had seen victories for the Saint Lucia Labour Party with the previous election in 2001 seeing them win 14 seats to only 3 for the United Workers Party.

However in 2005 John Compton came out of retirement to become leader of the opposition United Workers Party again. Compton had led Saint Lucia to independence in 1979 and then been Prime Minister from 1982 until he resigned in 1996. Compton defeated Vaughan Lewis in an election for the leadership of the United Workers Party with Lewis later defecting from the UWP to fight the 2006 election for the Saint Lucia labour Party.

A by-election in Castries Central in March 2006 was seen as starting a long campaign for the election due in December. The by-election was won by an Independent candidate Richard Frederick in a seat which the Saint Lucia Labour Party had won in the last two elections. Frederick would later join the United Workers Party and stood for the party in the general election.

In the campaign the United Workers Party focused on crime, which they saw as increasing, and promised to make it a priority if they were elected. Their leader Compton pledged to tackle unemployment, which they said was to blame for much of the crime in Saint Lucia. They also promised to revive the banana industry in Saint Lucia and accused the Saint Lucia Labour Party of corruption and nepotism. However the age of the United Workers Party leader John Compton, at 81, became an issue with the Saint Lucia Labour Party calling on voters to not entrust the country to him.

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