By NAN Staff Writer
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY., Weds. July 28, 2021: The Eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia will get a new prime minister today, when Philip Joseph Pierre, leader of the St Lucia Labour Party (SLP), is sworn in to office.
Pierre will take the oath of office at 4 p.m. today, and says he intends to be a government for the entire country.
The St Lucia Labour Party on Monday clinched a massive victory in the elections over the incumbent United Workers Party (UWP), winning 13 out of 17 parliamentary constituencies in the country. The UWP won only 2 seats while the other two were won by independent candidates.
Among them is the former prime minister Stephenson King, who quit the ruling UWP to contest the Castries North constituency, which he has been representing for nearly three decades as an independent. And independent candidate, Richard Frederick defeated the incumbent Foreign Affairs Minister, Sarah Flood Beaubrun in the Castries Central seat.
Outgoing Prime Minister Allen Chastanet has congratulated Pierre but, said the results of Monday’s general elections has come as a “shock.”
TEN FAST FACTS ABOUT PHILIP J. PIERRE
1: The incoming St. Lucia prime minister was born in Castries, the capital of St. Lucia to a mother who was a schoolteacher and a father who was a cop.
2: He studied at Saint Mary’s College, then completed a BA (hons) in economics and a Master of Business Administration from the University of the West Indies.
3: Pierre then taught at Saint Mary’s College and worked as a trainee manager at J.Q. Charles Ltd. He then entered the finance industry: he worked as an audit clerk at Coopers & Lybrand and Pannell Kerr Forster, and as a financial controller at Stanthur Co. Ltd.
4: From 1985 to 1994, Pierre was the Director of the National Research and Development Corporation and from 1990 to 1997, the Chief Executive of his own management consultancy firm, Philip J. Pierre Business Services Ltd.
5: Pierre joined the Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) in 1985, and served as the party treasurer from 1986 to 1992. In 1992, he contested the general elections for the first time in Castries East, but did not win. After serving as the SLP chairman from 1992 to 1996, Pierre ran again in 1997 and won.
6: In the resulting SLP government led by Kenny Anthony, Pierre served as Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation and International Financial Services from 1997 to 2000.
7: Pierre was re-elected to the House of Assembly from Castries East in the general elections of 2001, 2006, and 2011. In 2011, he was sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Port Services, and Transportation.
8: Pierre retained his seat in the 2016 general election, but the SLP lost overall. Kenny Anthony then resigned as party leader and Pierre was then elected as his successor. He also became the parliamentary Leader of the Opposition.
9: Pierre successfully led the party to a landslide victory on July 26, 2021, ousting the incumbent Chastanet government after only one five-year term.
10: Pierre has one daughter, Philicia F. M. Pierre, and his hobbies are cricket and international politics.
