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CASTRIES, St. Lucia, Jun 06 2016 – St. Lucians are voting for a new government Monday with both the ruling St. Lucia Labour Party (SLP) and its main challenger, the United Workers Party (UWP), saying they are confident of victory.
Heavy rains accompanied by lightning and thunder, greeted residents as they began voting, and the weather forecast calls for widely scattered thunderstorms throughout the day with rainfall of 2.1 millimetres expected during the morning period and 1.9 millimetres in the evening.
The Electoral Department said that an estimated 160, 465 people are eligible to cast ballots at the 430 polling stations scattered across the island.
The polling stations opened at 6:30 am and will close at 6:00 pm (local time) with the Supervisor of Elections, Gaspard Jn. Baptiste indicating that the first set of preliminary results should be known by at least two hours later.
On Sunday, both the SLP and the UWP staged motorcades across the island in a last minute bid to woe undecided voters.
In the 2011 general election, the SLP won 11 seats to the UWP’s six.
