Grenadian general election « Letters from Grenada

Grenadian general election

(Grenada’s flag)

The last general election in Grenada was five years ago, nearly two years before my time. So I’m getting a real kick out of election season, especially since everyone is to some degree taking a page from or making a comparison to the campaigns going on right now in the States.

My informal survey tells me that most Grenadians make their political decisions based on very narrow and personal issues, often having to do with an actual encounter with the candidate, because the island is that small. Some seem swayed by the rallies. Some talk politics for hours every day but never bother to vote. A woman I used to work with told me that she’s voting against the incumbent in her parish because several years ago he wanted to charge her for showing her where the boundary of her land is. My babysitter remembers a day during the revolution when she had to run and hide to avoid being shot. She’s voting against the party that she believes those men later joined.

The Prime Minister, of course, is in rare form. He’s pretty desperate to remain in power, for all the obvious reasons, but also because he’s been using that power to hide from some rather serious legal problems.I can’t vote here, of course, because I’m not a citizen. I find myself caring about this election, though, almost as much as I care about the election in November. I live here and my son was born here. I very much hope there’s a regime change on July 8th.