Grenada Election Gives Ruling Party 14 of 15 Seats

Grenada’s National Democratic Congress won 14 of the country’s 15 parliamentary seats on Thursday, giving Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell a second consecutive term and leaving the New National Party with one seat. The count is still provisional. Yet the seat arithmetic already points to a government able to pass laws easily, with little opposition power to slow it.

A landslide built by the rules

The Parliamentary Elections Office reported 37,369 votes for the NDC, or 61% of valid ballots, and 22,567 votes for the NNP, or 36.8%. Turnout was 63.3%: 61,460 ballots cast among 97,031 registered voters. That fell below the close-to-70% turnout in 2022.

Grenada has 15 constituencies. The candidate with the most votes in each takes the seat, and the party with the most seats forms the government. Under that system, the NDC’s seat haul gives it a commanding position in parliament, while voters who backed other parties see their choices translate into far less legislative power. The tally describes the result; the rules decide how heavily it concentrates authority.

The NDC added five seats compared with its 2022 result, when it won nine seats to the NNP’s six and ended the NNP’s period in government. The NNP had won all 15 seats in 2013 and repeated that sweep in 2018. The parties have traded dominance, while the winner-takes-each-constituency structure turns that swing into sharp changes in parliamentary control.

Mitchell won St David with 5,318 votes, against 2,138 for his NNP challenger. In St Andrew South East, NNP leader Emmalin Pierre lost to Education Minister David Andrew, 2,011 votes to 1,849. Pierre had narrowly defeated Andrew there in 2022 by just over 200 votes. She had hoped to become Grenada’s first woman prime minister, and this was her first general election as NNP leader after former prime minister Keith Mitchell retired from electoral politics.

The opposition’s narrow foothold

The NNP’s only victory came in St George North West, where Adrian Joseph received 2,052 votes. Keith Mitchell represented that seat for 42 years. The Democratic People's Movement, a new party led by former foreign minister Peter David, received 1,189 votes and won no seats. David lost the Town of St George’s seat, which he first won in 2003.

A government holding 14 of 15 seats can pass laws easily, the report said, leaving the opposition little power to slow it. That’s the institutional consequence behind the result: a substantial share of valid ballots went to the NNP, but it holds one seat. No legislative proposal or reform plan appears in the report, and no grassroots or self-organized response is described. The account offers no evidence of an alternative channel of decision-making outside parliament.

Mitchell called the election before it was constitutionally due in 2027. Provisional results remain just that: no certified final results had been published, no swearing-in date had been announced, and no concession statement from the NNP had been found. After official results are declared, the Governor-General, described as the King's representative in Grenada, formally appoints the prime minister.

Observers and the interests watching

The government declared Friday, 6 November, a public holiday. CARICOM’s 11-member observer mission, led by Herman St Helen of Saint Lucia’s electoral department, was due to present initial observations at 3 p.m. ET, or 4 p.m. Grenada time. An Organization of American States mission led by Ambassador Sherry Tross was also to publish an assessment. The report identifies no nonprofit or aid group delivering support to voters.

The result points to continuity for Americans with interests in Grenada, including travellers, retirees and investors in tourism and the citizenship-by-investment program, which grants passports in return for a donation or property purchase. The political analysts supplied the verdict from above the ballot count. Barbados-based Peter Wickham called the election “free and fair” and “free from violence,” and said the NNP had suffered “carnage.” Trinidad-based Derek Ramsamooj said voters had accepted “new, young, dynamic leadership,” adding that the NDC had “a lot more political capital and resources” than the NNP. The certified count and the observers’ assessments are still pending.