Lester Bird

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Lester Bryant Bird (born February 21, 1938, New York City) was Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda from 1994 to 2004 and a well-known athlete. He was chairman of the Antigua Labour Party (ALP) from 1971 to 1993, then became Prime Minister when his father, Vere Bird, the previous Prime Minister, resigned.

His government won re-election in 1994 and 1999. In 2003 he temporarily became a leader of a minority administration. At the March 2004 elections the ALP was defeated by the United Progressive Party (UPP) led by Baldwin Spencer. Bird's party lost eight seats, and he himself was defeated by Errol Cort, who became finance minister in the new UPP government.

Bird has remained the ALP's political leader following the party's 2004 defeat.^[1]

Lester B. Bird is an Honorary Member of The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation

[edit] Criticisms

Like his father, many criticize Lester Bird for being corrupt.^{[citation needed]} An independent observer, Timothy Goddard, wrote this in his blog: "...The Birds, though, were as corrupt as they get, and their government was considered the most corrupt in the Caribbean, possibly the world. From serving as a tax haven, to drug smuggling, to embezzling, to arms smuggling, to vote fraud, to media control, to land-grabbing and even to domestic terrorism when they fell out of power from 1971-76, the Birds and their cronies did it all."^{[unreliable source?]}