Grenada United Labour Party

The Grenada United Labour Party (GULP) is a political party in Grenada.

Grenada United Labour Party
Founded1950 (as Grenada People's Party)
HeadquartersGladstone Road,
Grenville,
St. Andrew's
NewspaperThe Grenada Guardian
IdeologyDemocratic socialism
Social democracy
Eco-socialism
Republicanism
Socialism of the 21st century
Political positionLeft-wing
ColorsRed  
House of Representatives:
0 / 15

History

The party was founded by Eric Gairy in 1950. It contested the first elections held under universal suffrage in 1951, and won six of the eight seats.[1] The 1954 elections saw the same outcome. In the 1957 elections it lost four seats, whilst two other parties, the Grenada National Party and the People's Democratic Movement also won two seats, with the GNP's leader Herbert Blaize becoming leader of the island.

The party regained power after winning eight of the ten seats in the 1961 elections.[1] It lost the 1962 elections to the GNP, before returning to power in the 1967 elections. The party remained in power following the 1972 elections, but Gairy's government became increasingly authoritarian, with his secret police (the Mongoose Gang) threatening the opposition. Following the 1976 elections, which were branded fraudulent by international observers, Gairy was overthrown in a coup in 1979.

After democracy was restored, GULP won only a single seat in the 1984 elections and has since remained in opposition. It formed an alliance with United Labour[2] for the 1999 elections, in which it lost parliamentary representation for the first time since 1951. However, it regained a seat when Michael Baptiste of the ruling New National Party defected to GULP in June 2000.[3][4]

Gloria Payne Banfield was elected as GULP leader in February 2003, becoming Grenada's first female party leader. In the general elections the party won 3.2% of the vote but again failed to win a seat.[3] For the 2008 elections it formed an alliance with the People's Labour Movement named the Labour Platform. The alliance fielded 11 candidates for the 15 seats,[5] but received only 478 votes and no seats.

Electoral history

House of Representatives elections
Election Party leader Votes % Seats +/– Position Government
1951 Eric Gairy 13,328 64.2%
6 / 8
 6 1st Opposing majority
1954 10,347 46.0%
6 / 8
 1st Opposing majority
1957 10,952 44.3%
2 / 8
 4 1st Opposition
1961 11,606 53.3%
8 / 10
 6 1st Majority government
1962 9,705 46.0%
4 / 10
 4 2nd Opposition
1967 15,827 54.6%
7 / 10
 3 1st Majority government
1972 20,164 58.9%
13 / 15
 6 1st Majority government
1976 21,108 51.7%
9 / 15
 4 1st Majority government
1984 14,721 35.9%
1 / 15
 8 2nd Opposition
1990 11,105 28.1%
4 / 15
 12 2nd Opposition
1995 11,608 26.6%
2 / 15
 2 3rd Opposition
1999 4,853 11.7%
0 / 15
 2 3rd Extra-parliamentary
2003 Gloria Payne Banfield 2,243 4.7%
0 / 15
 3rd Extra-parliamentary
2008 478 0.8%
0 / 15
 3rd Extra-parliamentary

References
  1. Nohlen, D (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p311 ISBN 978-0-19-928357-6
  2. https://books.google.de/books?id=yNGfBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT2403
  3. Political Parties of the World (6th edition, 2005), ed. Bogdan Szajkowski, page 265.
  4. "Jun 1995 - New Grenada Cabinet", Keesing's Record of World Events, Volume 41, June, 1995 Grenada, Page 40592.
  5. GULP/PLM Combination Produces 11 Candidates Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine Grenada Today, 5 July 2008
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