ALP Leader Lester Bird has challenged his political rival Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer to announce the date for the next general election, which is due by March.

ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC - The opposition Antigua Labour Party (ALP) has challenged Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer to “stop dragging his feet on the inevitable and announce the date for the next general election by this weekend at the latest”.

Although both the ALP and the governing United Progressive Party (UPP) have been campaigning for the past month, Spencer has yet to inform the nation of the exact date that the country will go to the polls to choose a new government.

However, the ALP, in a statement Saturday, said the UPP was “duty bound to use the opening of its so-called campaign command centre on Sunday January 04, 2009 to let the voters of Antigua and Barbuda know the date”.

“This will be the UPP’s second launching of its election campaign and no public interest is served by this comical drama of starts and stops that unnecessarily delay the UPP’s date with rejection at the polls,” the statement added.

In fact, the opposition party said that the people of Antigua and Barbuda should be allowed to cast their ballots in the general election by the end of January or the first week of February.

“We are ready for them. The people of the country are ready for them,” ALP Chairman Gaston Brown told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) late Saturday.

The UPP beat the ALP at the last general election in 2004 to form the government of this twin-island nation. Prior to that, the ALP had served for 28 consecutive years.

General elections are constitutionally due in Antigua and Barbuda by March.

CMC/bm/09