This appeared in Jamaicaobserver.com, see link
Sixty-year-old Winston Baldwin Spencer was sworn in as prime minister yesterday, a few hours after his ruling United Progressive Party (UPP) was confirmed as winner of Thursday’s elections for a second consecutive five-year term in office.
Spencer, along with Attorney General Justin Simon, took the Oath of Office before Governor General Dame Louise Lake-Tack at a simple ceremony at her official residence that was attended by senior party officials and supporters.
The UPP, which controlled 12 seats in the last Parliament, only managed to garner nine in Thursday’s poll which was marred by a computer glitch that caused a major setback to voting and also pushed back counting in several constituencies.
When the final tally was announced around mid-morning yesterday, it showed that the main opposition Antigua Labour Party (ALP) had improved its position in the new Parliament, capturing seven seats compared to the four it had in the last legislature.
The other seat in the 17-member Parliament was retained by Trevor Walker, whose Barbuda People’s Movement (BPM) is closely aligned to the UPP.
In a result reminiscent of the 2004 general election, Walker defeated his close political rival Arthur Nibbs of the ALP in a photo finish with the preliminary results showing that he polled 474 votes to Nibbs’ tally of 473, a situation that is likely to be challenged by the defeated candidate.
The prime minister welcomed the UPP’s victory in the election even as he conceded that he had expected a bigger margin.
“I am surprised we did not win it more comfortably… it could have been more emphatic, but we prevailed,” he told jubilant supporters, adding that he was satisfied that the voters had given his administration a second opportunity “to move this country on the right track and in the right direction”.
“We are on a rescue mission that started in 2004. (and) I want to assure you that your country today is in safe hands,” he said, warning “as we prepare for the second term in office. it will not be business as usual”.
Apart from Prime Minister Spencer, who fought off a strong challenge in St John’s Rural West from Gail Christian of the ALP, several ministers in the last UPP administration were also successful.
But the prime minister received a setback with the defeat of three of his Cabinet ministers, including Finance Minister Errol Cort, whose loss to ALP leader Lester Bird has rekindled hopes of extending that family’s dominance of the country’s political landscape.
Bird, 71, had already declared that Thursday’s election would be his last but is pleased to have been able to avenge his loss to Cort in 2004.
“We are having a motorcade … because the comeback kid has made the comeback,” Bird told reporters after the results showed he had received 1,939 votes as compared to 1,843 for Cort and 71 votes for the leader of the fledgling Organisation for National Development (OND) Melford Nicholas in the St John’s Rural East constituency.
Bird, the last remaining active member of the country’s most powerful political family, had been seeking to return the ALP to office after it suffered a loss in the last election, ending nearly three decades of Bird rule of this twin-island nation.
His father, the late Sir Vere Cornwall Bird Snr, led the nation into independence from the United Kingdom in 1981, becoming the country’s first prime minister. He had earlier served as chief minister and premier.
The younger Bird, who had served in Parliament from the 1970s until 2004 when he lost his seat in the general election, took over the leadership of the country after his father resigned in 1994 citing ill-health and amidst internal bickering within the then ruling party.
