Special forces personnel across the island cast the first ballots of the 2025 general election on Thursday, with voting described as largely smooth despite long lines at several locations.
Early voting ahead of the December 1 poll began as early as 6 a.m. at the Gros Islet Fire Station, Police Training School, Vieux Fort Divisional Headquarters and the Soufrière Fire Station to accommodate election workers and law enforcement personnel, including police, fire, and correctional officers.
Speaking at the Police Training School in La Toc, Castries earlier in the day, Assistant Commissioner of Police Dr Mashama Sealy said voting “started on time” at 6:30 a.m. She reported that the lines moved quickly, especially at one polling station which had fewer registered voters.
Chief Elections Officer Herman St Helen, who also visited the training school, said the long queues in some divisions were a direct result of the limited number of polling stations.
“There are two polling stations within this polling division and the lines appear to be long,” he said earlier in the day. “The voting is steady…. From other reports that I’ve gotten from our workers throughout Saint Lucia. It appears the same trend is happening.”
He added: “Being on site now, in hindsight, we should have given them another polling station right within this polling division. In our planning and our discussions, we never took into consideration how long those lines would have been.”
At the Gros Islet Fire Station, Presiding Officer for the Northern Division Electoral District and Assistant Commissioner of Police Elvis Thomas said the process was running efficiently under the watch of observers. There was one from the Organisation of American States.
The senior officer added that it was his responsibility to make sure everything went smoothly and voters were allowed to cast their ballots freely and without interruption.
Assistant Commissioner Thomas said that extended beyond early voting.
“It is our purpose to ensure that even as law enforcement officers, that the entire election season goes on incident-free,” he said.
One early voter at the Gros Islet Fire Station, Leon Ephiphane, a veteran police officer attached to the Rodney Bay Police Station, shared his thoughts after voting.
“I have been a police officer for the better part of 10 years. The process was smooth. At first it was a bit slow in terms of the timing of the agents and everything to come in so that we could have done it a lot earlier, but in the end it worked out well and I cast my ballot,” he said.
In the south, at the Vieux Fort Divisional Headquarters, the concerns about long lines were echoed.
An election clerk told St. Lucia Times that Monday’s general election would see far more polling stations across Vieux Fort South, reducing the chances of bottlenecks.
“What would happen on Monday for general elections, you would have a lot more polling stations. The fact is that the Vieux Fort South district has four polling divisions, and from those divisions you have several polling stations. So in the event you have a high turnout, the lines will not be as long and we will be moving much quicker,” the election clerk said.
A police officer voting there said she was surprised by the early turnout and described her experience as “good” despite waiting nearly three hours.
“I think that the wait was a bit long. I’ve been here from after 6 a.m. and I just came out and it’s 8:53 a.m., so it was long. Other than that, it was good,” she told St. Lucia Times after completing the process.
Soufrière saw a slower flow early in the morning, with lines building closer to midday. Although election officials declined to comment, the process appeared orderly.
