Chester Hughes won the All Saints East and St. Luke seat on his first outing as a candidate for the governing United Progressive Party (UPP).

ST JOHN'S, Antigua, CMC – The ruling United Progressive Party (UPP) has retained its majority in the Antigua and Barbuda parliament after its candidate successfully won the by-election for the All Saints East and St. Luke constituency on Thursday.

 

Preliminary figures released by the Electoral Official showed that Chester Hughes received 1,230 of the 1,314 votes cast in the by-election occasioned by the death of former Agriculture Minister Charlesworth Samuel. There were 12 rejected ballots.

 

Hughes, 33, who has become the youngest person ever to be elected as a legislator, defeated Ralph Francis of the Organisation for National Development (OND) and Steve Williams of the Progressive Youth Movement who received 56 and 17 votes respectively.

 

He has promised to carry on the work started by his late predecessor while Francis in extending congratulations said he was disappointed at the low voter turnout.

 

The poll was monitored by the Free and Fair Election League, the only group to be granted observer status for the by-election.

 

“Things were done quite smoothly. There was no dishonesty we observed,” Free and Fair Election League Chairman Vincent Parker told reporters.

 

“We would like to say however that we think there was an improvement in the whole voting process. There were more polling stations; there more individuals who were ready to assist voters to cast their votes.”

 

The league added that while there were some infractions, they were not serious enough to affect the result of poll.

 

The UPP came to power in the 2004 general election winning 12 of the 17 seats at stake. The main opposition Antigua Labour Party (ALP), which boycotted the by-election, won four seats with the Barbuda’s people Movement winning the other seat.

 

CMC/ak/pr/dmb/08