By Linley Winter
4th February 2026
Introduction
We are marching towards another round of general elections. Along this journey there is a significant
number of people who yearn for the nation to be marked by better governance. March 2004 was a seminal
moment in our political history. It was the first time in twenty-eight years that a political party other than
the ALP won the general elections. The UPP strode into political office on a wave of frustration with the
nature of governance under the ALP, and high on the hope that we would experience a better approach
to how the State was governed.
A History of Scandals, Maladministration and Contempt for the Law
The modern political history of our nation has been marked by a litany of scandals and bad governance
from 1967 to present. In the April to May of 1967 the then Political Committee of the ATLU, which presided
of the internal political administration of the State, was willing to disregard section 11 of the February
1967 constitution to prevent the registration of the Antigua Workers Union (AWU now ABWU).
During the period of the Progressive Labour Movement’s (PLM) rule from 1971 to 1976, it was an open
secret that, despite the many progressive initiatives of that administration, at least one minister of
government was selling water to one or more hotels. This was a blatant ethical breach. An elected
member of the ruling party used his public office to influence a contractual arrangement for personal gain.
The ALP’s rule, from 1976 to 2004, was marked by many scandals. For example, there was the late 1970s
Space Research Corporation scandal. This was connected to illegal shipment of arms through Antigua to
the apartheid regime in South Africa. In the early to mid-1980s, the airport runway scandal landed upon
us – every pun intended here. Substantial funds, from the EC$11.5 million that were earmarked for the
resurfacing of the runway, were syphoned away.
The Roydan Ltd. scandal sprouted by the late 1980s. It included Israelis who were melon farm operators
at Gaynor’s Estate. They had connections with the Israeli military and colluded with government officials
and others in Antigua and Barbuda, including Vere Bird Jr., a Minister of government, to illegally use our
main seaport as a transshipment point for arms to be sent to Colombia. One of the arms shipped there
was used, it was discovered, in the 1989 assassination of the leading presidential candidate, Luis Carlos
Galan. This resulted in the infamous Guns to Colombia Inquiry here chaired by UK attorney, Louis Blom-
Cooper, Q.C. The Blom-Cooper Commission recommended that Vere Bird Jr. never hold public office
again, as per section 127 (1) of the constitution. This recommendation, among others, was never followed.
In the mid-1990s a scandal emerged involving a Hong Kong businessman, Bill Chung. He was seemingly so
well-connected that he got Antiguan and Barbudan passports to be sold to would-be holders for fantastic
sums. This was long before there was a legal government policy called the Citizenship by Investment
Programme. And there was the notorious Medical Benefits Scheme scandal in the early 2000s. It festered
so badly, and was so rotten, that the government caved in to having a commission of inquiry empanelled
to investigate how the body’s funds were used. It was chaired by the eminent Grenadian scholar, who
was attached to the UWI Mona Campus, Dr. Alister McIntyre. This inquiry showed how various State actors
– political, high-level and mid-level functionaries, etc., used the State’s resources for their personal
benefit. The term “cesspool of corruption” became a shameful part of our nation’s political lexicon. It was
1used to describe how the Medical Benefits Scheme was governed, and broadly how the Antigua Labour
Party governed the State at the time.
There have been decades-long challenges with government procurement, for example. The public is
generally ignorant of whether or not the government gets value for money for many contractual
arrangements. Additionally, many contracts are agreed on without them being part of an open tendering
process. This provides room for possible manipulation.
Under the UPP’s rule, for example, at least one Cabinet member reportedly had a close relationship with
a female who was contracted to provide services for the National Solid Waste Management Authority.
There are many people who suspected that the favour that found this lady was not coincidental. A full
investigation into such processes will go a long way towards determining if the public interest was fairly
served in these arrangements. Good governance requires a commitment to openness and the fortitude
to do what is right.
Sadly, enrichment designs are not a recent phenomenon in our State. Many people benefit from
corruption. Not just political actors. Many people are uninterested in doing what is right because they are
part of one cabal or another engaged in actions resulting in the illicit obtaining of wealth. You may call it
grift, or graft, etc. Sir Lester Bird’s pointed remark in parliament on the eve of his removal from power
was profound. He told his parliamentary colleagues that the same brush that stained him stained them
too. That was not an oblique comment. It was an admission of widespread corruption involving political
actors who managed the State. All were involved and all were consumed, as the poet, Martin Carter,
tersely puts it.
Recent occurrences remind us of this scourge of maladministration. They include the Vehiclegate Scandal,
the suspected human smuggling of Africans to and from our shores, the improper accounting for the use
of more than EC$2.5 million donated by the Steve Morgan Foundation to help in hurricane relief in
Barbuda, the airline named Antigua Airways that is yet to find its way in the air, and more.
Political Repression and Constituencies Boundaries Manipulations
There was a generally repressive approach by ALP administrations from 1976 to 2004 to those perceived
as political adversaries. Political adversaries here do not mean only those people who were in a rival
political organisation. It includes the viewpoints of others that were fundamentally different from those
propagated by the leading lights in the ruling party at the time. Hence, from late 1977 into 1979, the ALP
administration responded to the Antigua Union of Teachers’ (AUT, now ABUT) call for union recognition
with force. Teachers who demonstrated to press home their legitimate industrial relations issues were
beaten and jailed. When Michael Brown from St. Vincent, the head of the Caribbean Union of Teachers,
came here to give moral support to teachers appearing before the court he was declared persona non
grata – an unwelcomed person. The same fate was meted out to Dr. Chedi Jagan from Guyana. He also
came, like Michael Brown, on a similar mission to support the teachers. He never even left the confines
of the airport. He was put on the next available flight out of the State.
In the immediate period after the 1976 general elections, Sir George Walter was arrested, charged and
convicted of corruption. Before the 1980 general elections’ nominations took place, Sir George was
acquitted by the appeal court of the charges. But, by some strange luck or otherwise, the decision on the
acquittal was not released until after nomination day. Sir George, the most feared adversary of
Sir V.C. Bird, could not run in the elections. His wife stood in his place. The ALP’s candidate won that
constituency, named All Saints, by 9 votes.
23
Prior to the 1980 elections, the ALP, through the Constituencies Boundaries Commission, readied itself
for an electoral advantage by splitting key strongholds of the main opposition party, the Progressive
Labour Movement (PLM). See the chart below. Professor Douglass Midget contended that these
constituencies’ boundaries changes were acts of gerrymandering to secure an ALP win in the 1980
elections. The boundaries’ changes took place without any engagement with the people. They were
systematically imposed. The same practice was repeated from 30th March to 16th April 1984, with elections
held on 17th April 1984.
No. 1976 Elections Constituency
Composition
1980 Elections Constituency
Composition
1984 Elections Constituency
Composition
1 St. Mary’s North:
Jennings
Bolans
St. Mary’s North:
Jennings
Bendals
Browne’s Avenue
St. Mary’s North:
Jennings
Bendals
Cashew Hill (this area
was too small in 1980
to be a polling
district)
Browne’s Avenue
2 St. Mary’s South:
Johson’s Point
Urlings
Old Road
St. Mary’s South
Bolans
Johnson’s Point
Urlings
St. Mary’s South
Bolans
Johnson’s Point
Urlings
3 St. Luke:
Swetes
Buckleys
John Hughes
Bendals & Bath Lodge
St. Luke:
Swetes
John Hughes
Old Road
All Saints East & St. Luke:
Swetes
John Hughes
Old Road
Eastern All Saints
4 St. Peter:
Parham
Pares
Freeman’s Village
St. Peter :
Parham
Pares
All Saints West:
Sea View Farm
Bottom Village All
Saints
Freeman’s Village
5 All Saints:
All Saints
Sea View Farm
Browne’s Avenue
All Saints:
All Saints
Sea View Farm
Freeman’s Village
St. Peter:
Parham
Pares
The communities in red were the ones placed in a new constituency.
The repressive arm of the State was also evident in the multiple instances in which freedom of expression,
including press freedom, was threatened. There are many court cases which attest to various political
administrations’ efforts to censor and censure freedom of expression. That is an inglorious record in our
modern political history. The trials of Tim Hector and the Outlet Newspaper, to those of Observer
Publications Ltd., to the Elloy de Fraitas case in 1997, all highlight this black eye in our political
development.An Opportunity for Reform that was Stillborn
The UPP, during its first administration, from 2004 to 2009, had an opportunity to make fundamental
reforms to our constitution. This was because they had the parliamentary majority to do so, even if they
chose not to reform entrenched sections of the constitution. The following changes could have been made
that would have been critical to underpinning good governance:
I. Having a fixed date for general elections;
II. Reducing the number of parliamentarians who could be in the Cabinet;
III. Entrenching Barbuda’s communal holding land system in the constitution;
IV. Instituting a minimum number of times yearly that parliamentary representatives had to report
to constituents on their stewardship; and
V. Mandating that parliamentary positions be full-time, well-paid, positions in which
parliamentarians also serve on two to three permanent committees to provide detailed oversight
of the areas under their remit, including being able to subpoena persons to appear before the
committees.
To say that the non-implementation of reforms such as those outlined above were a missed opportunity
is an understatement. Just on the matter of the parliamentary committees alone, we missed the boat for
instituting committees to give teeth to section 70 (1) of the constitution that says the Cabinet is
responsible to Parliament. Therefore, to date, little substantive parliamentary work is done outside of law
making. Constitutional and legislative reforms and hounouring them in our deeds are central to good
governance. It would be an improvement to see the creation of committees spanning areas like Health &
Social Transformation, Defense & National Security, Education & Youth Affairs, Culture & Festivals, Public
Works, Telecommunications, Financial Services, Tourism – including Yachting and Cruise & Air Arrival,
Agriculture, Foreign Relations, Foreign Trade, Energy, Consumer Affairs, and so on.
To its credit, the UPP passed some critical legislations aimed at improving governance – the Freedom of
Information Act, the Integrity in Public Life Act, the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Constituencies
Boundaries Guidance Act. They also passed the Finance Administration Act. But some legal practitioners
contend that some of these legislations need supporting regulations to help in their operationalisation.
This is a deficiency that must be corrected.
It would be naïve to think that all UPP elected parliamentarians were on-board with the party’s reform-
driven governance agenda. People are not stupid. It was obvious in the parliamentary conduct of some
MPs who stoutly resisted, for example, including the administration’s attempt to put electricity generation
back in the State’s control.
There were also instances in which some UPP Ministers, like some Ministers of the ALP before 2004 and
ABLP Ministers since 2014, sought to directly involve themselves in directing the operations of civil
servants and public servants broadly. This included requesting the personal files of employees and
wanting sensitive data related to people who are under the care of the State. This is unethical. It is morally
wrong. And, if nothing else, it is against the convention that guides the operations of the government
bureaucracy in relation to the role of Cabinet members.
4Citizenship Responsibility
Pressure from below is imperative to drive the governance reforms the country desperately deserves. This
includes demanding clear penalties attached to parliamentarians who transgress constitutional and
legislative reforms. We must, as people in the public, do more and demand more of parliamentarians to
account for their stewardship and expect the same of every public officer. Citizenship action is central to
the thrust for good governance. This includes resisting efforts by those who think that your principles are
convenient and hence can be bought.
To claim that we are unaffected by the policies and actions of any administration is a type of cognitive
dissonance. There is no safe harbour in political apathy or neutrality. We are all affected. Those who have
had higher education but cower to engage in political action have wasted the transformative power of
education. I accept that education is not a mark of good character. But it certainly makes it impossible for
those with higher education to claim ignorance about ways to make the world around us better. And there
are those who have become comprised. Whether for a few dollars more, a better position or some other
material benefit, they have conspired to debase, plunder, and impoverish our beloved nation.
Somewhere in the ignoble triangle of cowardice, compromise and cognitive dissonance, many of us have
been imprisoned. But liberation is possible. The opportunity for redemption presents itself every day. The
will to reclaim your honour resides in you. No heart is too hollow, and no mind is too weak to, as Bob
Marley puts it, to “Get up! Stand up! Stand up for your right!” Join the mission to make this nation better.
If we subscribe to the notion that the power of the people is greater than the people in power, we are on
our way to chart a course for a better Antigua and Barbuda. You can do so individually, or as part of a civic
body, or in a political organisation of some kind. Good governance demands nothing less.