With St Vincent elections widely expected before the end of 2025, the incumbent Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves asserts that an increasing number of entities seeking access to SVG passports are directing financial contributions to the Opposition NDP’s funds.
On Tuesday, Gonsalves asserted without substantiating his claim, “They’re even, in one case, there’s an entity out of India which is connected with some cricket thing, are all now putting money into the NDP coffers.”
Nonetheless, in the absence of campaign finance laws within the southeastern Caribbean nation, it is conceivable that any unscrupulous individual, or even a drug trafficker could contribute funds to both political parties.
In fact, it has long been rumored from time immemorial that drug lords have been contributors to political parties within the island nation.
Neither Gonsalves nor any representative of the ULP has ever disclosed whether the party receives funding, the origins of such funding, or the specific sources and most crucially, the amounts involved.
Gonsalves at the press conference said the entities facilitating the NDP campaign are working in tandem with Chinese companies that want SVG to switch its diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China.
“They are hyperactive now; the traditional ones out of Europe are working now, with some from China.”
“Right now, they’re operating in the embassy of a country not too far from us, in this Caribbean. It is from there that the centre of the NDP election campaign is being financed and run.”
“It is organizing the printing of t-shirts in various constituencies. They’re paying people who are commenting on radio. They are paying the radio station and online publications too,” Gonsalves said.
The Opposition has not responded to the claims made by Gonsalves.
