Oldest political party bows out of election race

ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – Grenada’s oldest political party said Monday that it will not contest the February 19 general elections, effectively making the contest a two-way race between the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the main opposition New National Party (NNP). “We decided at a meeting on Saturday that we will not contest because we have some things to get done, we are just not ready to contest the elections,” said the interim leader of the 62-year-old Grenada United Labour Party (GULP), Wilfred Haynes. But former opposition leader Michael Baptiste, who had earlier indicated that he would have led the party’s candidates into the elections, appeared on an NDC platform with Prime Minister Tillman Thomas and vowed to campaign on behalf of the incumbent.