Grenada’s longest serving prime minister lost in a tight general elections and was succeeded by a newcomer.
Dickon Mitchell’s National Democratic Congress party gained 52 percent of votes compared with 48 percent for Keith Mitchell’s New National Party. The incoming party won nine of 15 constituencies.
Keith Mitchell became prime minister in 1995 and served until 2008, then won again in 2018 in a landslide. He had asked voters this year to give him “one for the road.”
Keith Mitchell, 75, is a former professional cricketer and a statistician who once worked with the U.S government but returned to Grenada following the 1983 US invasion that occurred just days after the island’s pro-Marxist leader was executed.
The incoming prime minister is no relation. Baby-faced Dickon Mitchell is a 44-year-old attorney and former teacher who became leader of his party in October. He has pledged to improve health care, decrease unemployment and poverty, build affordable housing and boost education.
Grenada has a population of 114,000. It oversees two other small islands. Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
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