Election in Antigua and Barbuda

Description of election in Antigua and Barbuda.........

Antigua and Barbuda is a twin-island nation lying between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It consists of two major inhabited islands, Antigua and Barbuda, and a number of smaller islands (including Great Bird, Green, Guinea, Long, Maiden and York Islands and further south, the island of Redonda). The permanent population numbers approximately 81,800 (at the 2011 Census) and the capital and largest port and city is St.John's, on Antigua. The politics of Antigua and Barbuda take place within a framework of a unitary, parliamentary, representative democratic monarchy, in which the Head of State is the Monarch who appoints the Governor General as vice-regal representative. Elizabeth II is the present Queen of Antigua and Barbuda, having served in that position since the island independence from the United Kingdom in 1981.

 The Queen is currently represented by Governor General Dame Louise Lake-Tack (1944), who became the first woman to hold this position. A Council of Ministers is appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister, currently Winston Baldwin Spencer (1948). The Prime Minister is the Head of Government.

The Judicial Branch is the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (based in Saint Lucia; one judge of the Supreme Court is a resident of the islands and presides over the High Court of Justice). In addition, Antigua is a member of the Caribbean Court of Justice. The Supreme Court of Appeal was the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council up until 2001, when the nations of the Caribbean Community voted to abolish the right of appeal to the Privy Council in favor of a Caribbean Court of Justice. Some debate between member countries repeatedly delayed the court's date of inauguration. As of March 2005, only Barbados was set to replace appeals to the Privy Council with appeals the Caribbean Court of Justice, which by then had come into operation The current Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition is Antigua Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), the Honourable Gaston Alphonso Browne. Browne defeated his predecessor Lester Bryant Bird at the party's biennial convention in November, 2012 held to elect a political leader and other party officers. Gaston Alphonso Browne renamed the Antigua Labour Party [ALP], to the Antigua & Barbuda Labour Party, ABLP. This was done to officially include the party's presence on the sister isle of Barbuda in its organization, the only political party on the mainland to have a physical branch in Barbuda.

Elections in our database....

Population (as of July 1, 2013)=90,156     3

Registered Voters (as of March 1, 2009)=52,183

Average Turnout=78.35%

Election For                           Date               Votes       Registered Voters    Turn Out

House of Representatives     2009-03-12     41,886     52,183                     80.27%

House of Representatives     2004-03-23     39,627     43,459                     91.18%

House of Representatives     1999-03-09     33,318     52,385                     63.6%