St. Lucia heads to polls as ex-PM seeks return to power

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CASTRIES, Dec 1 (Reuters) – St. Lucians headed to the polls on Monday to elect their legislature and choose their prime minister, in a race that has centered on the small Caribbean island’s economic management, violent crime and passport sales.

Prime Minister Philip Pierre’s Labour Party, which holds a strong majority in both of St. Lucia’s legislative houses, will seek to stave off a challenge from conservative opposition leader Allen Chastanet, who preceded Pierre as prime minister of the country of 180,000 people.

Chastanet heads the conservative United Workers Party, which has sought stronger international security cooperation and more financial transparency while Pierre has advocated for stability and cautious economic management. 

Chastanet argued that security deteriorated under Pierre’s leadership partly because of more limited U.S. support for local police – restricted on grounds of past human rights abuses under the U.S. Leahy Law. He has called for more transparent auditing of the island’s citizenship-by-investment program.

CBI programs are an important source of tax income for several small island nations in the Eastern Caribbean, but the policy has raised tensions with the U.S. government, which said these can be exploited by “nefarious actors” from China or Iran.

Washington this year proposed its own “gold card” visa program to speed the wealthy through its immigration track.

The election follows Thursday’s election in neighboring St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where the opposition snatched almost all the seats up for election, ousting Ralph Gonsalves after 24 years as prime minister.

It comes as the U.S. escalates a military buildup in the Caribbean it says aims to curb drug trafficking around Venezuela. Authorities in the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago have allowed U.S. vessels to dock in their territory.

(Reporting by Sarah Peter in Castries; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Rod Nickel)