Kenny Anthony

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Kenneth Anthony

7th Prime Minister of Saint Lucia
In office May 24, 1997 – December 15, 2006
Preceded by	Vaughan Lewis
Succeeded by	John Compton

Born	January 8, 1951 Laborie, Saint Lucia
Political party	Saint Lucia Labour Party
Spouse	Rose Mary Antoine Anthony
Religion	Anglican

Kenny Davis Anthony (born January 8, 1951) was Prime Minister of Saint Lucia from 1997 to 2006. Anthony is a graduate of the University of the West Indies, the University of Birmingham, and is a member of the Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP). He became prime minister on May 24, 1997, a day after the SLP won parliamentary elections. This was significant because the SLP had been out of power for over a decade. Anthony was a member of one of the last labour governments, as minister of education from 1980 until 1981. He was a member of the secretariat of the Caribbean Community from 1995 until he was elected leader of the Labour Party. While elected in office he was the minister of finance and broadcasting.

[edit] General election defeat

In the general elections held on 11 December 2006, the SLP suffered a shocking defeat by 11 seats to 6 at the hands of the John Compton-led UWP. Anthony narrowly managed to hold on to his seat of Vieux Fort South. No word has come from him regarding his next political move. Pundits are suggesting that his perceived arrogance was responsible for his party's dismal performance at the said polls. It is not expected that Dr. Anthony will be retained as the party's political leader at the party's next national convention.^{[citation needed]} Anthony said after the election that he intended to remain head of the party and that party delegates would decide at the next annual conference whether he would continue in that position.^[1]

During his leadership and his party's reign, Anthony led St. Lucia to record development in tourism, infrastructure and general economic development. However according to many, that economic development did not equally benefit many poorer St. Lucians, many of whom felt disenfrancised by the leader and party they once voted-in with landslide victories. Another area of concern and perhaps a reason for the SLP loss was what many felt was a soft and helpless hand on crime. Together with much economic development came steady increases in violent crime at a rate higher than many neighbouring islands and that caused many to draw comparisons with Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.

Since the loss, Dr. Anthony (he holds a PHD in constitutional law) has vowed that he would continue to serve the country from the opposition being a strong voice together with the other 5 members of his party who were elected.

An interesting twist to the elections saga is that many feel that St. Lucians went to the polls not to elect a new government but to ensure that there would be a tougher opposition as against the 16-1 majority that the SLP had previously enjoyed. In a fate of irony, voters perhaps over-compensated for the frequent poll reports and political pundits' predictions that the SLP would again win a third term with a 14-3 majority. Many feel that, had Dr. Anthony himself not latched on to those poll results, he might have been better able to convince his own supporters that they were not yet in the clear and to turn out to vote in larger numbers. Further, the reaction of many voters to the crossing over of former UWP leader Vaughan Lewis to the SLP was not positive. Lewis was a staunch opponent of the Labour government and the former Prime Minister who had lost the elections to the SLP - albeit after being handed the post only one year before the fateful loss. Dr. Anthony and Dr. Lewis have both stated publicly that all the "bad blood" between them was now "water under the bridge".