Allen Chastanet and his United Workers’ Party suffered a tremendous defeat in Monday’s general election, with the Saint Lucia Labour Party, led by Philip Pierre, winning 13 of the 17 electoral seats up for grabs, safely putting them in the position to run the government.

While Prime Minister Elect Pierre has served as Deputy PM in the past, it was his first time leading his party to elections and his first time being elected to serve as Prime Minister of the nation of roughly 160,000 registered voters.

The UWP, which had formed the government led by Chastanet from 2016, managed to garner a mere two seats, compared to the 11 they previously held as government.

One of those seats was won by Chastanet himself, who comfortably retained his Micoud South seat, despite losing control of the government.

The two remaining seats were won by Independent candidates.

This year’s general election in St. Lucia was historic for more than one reason. 

Of the two winning Independent candidates, one was former Prime Minister Stephenson King, who departed Chastanet’s leadership in the UWP to contest the Castries North seat on his own strength. 

He won by a landslide. 

Prime Minister-Elect Pierre posted the following photo to his official Twitter after his party’s victory was declared, captioning “Thank you, Saint Lucia. #PhilipCares #PuttingYouFirst”