“Election Influence Through CIP?”- UWP Sounds Warning

Leaders of the opposition United Workers Party (UWP) have expressed renewed concern  about the government’s management of the Citizenship By Investment Programme (CIP).  According to UWP 1st Deputy Leader, Guy Joseph, citizenship packages can be leveraged to influence the outcome of elections in the coming years. The UWP recently expressed concern over an alleged number of citizenship packages approved by the government for CIP Agent, Caribbean Galaxy Real Estate. “Can you imagine in 10 years, you can have 50,000 Chinese in St. Lucia, who have a legitimate right to spread out in all constituencies and to vote,” he said along the sidelines of a UWP-led demonstration at the CIP headquarters on Monday.  According to Joseph, voting patterns in Saint Lucia show that the winning party needs just over 40,000 votes. “Now let’s follow the voting patterns in Saint Lucia over the years. The most votes any political party has had to form a government is about 45,000 votes. That is less than the number of Chinese who are coming into the country. So do you know how easy it is in Dominica, in St. Kitts Nevis and in Saint Lucia, Grenada, for you to have the Chinese government setting up...