Grenadians choosing their leaders

By Loren Brown
The Associated Press

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ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada — Twenty years after Grenada weathered a coup and U.S. military invasion, its two leading parties competed for votes in parliamentary elections yesterday, claiming they best could lead the tiny Caribbean nation to prosperity.

Preliminary results showed the governing party won by a slim margin. The New National captured eight seats and the National Democratic Congress took the remaining seven in the 15-seat legislature, according to Victor Ashby, supervisor of Grenada's elections committee. He said official results would be announced today.

With Prime Minister Keith Mitchell's party at the helm, the Caribbean island nation has built a government complex, a national stadium and a 440-yard-long cruise-ship pier. Unemployment has decreased from some 22 percent in 1995 to roughly 12.5, according to official statistics.

Grenada became a point of contention in the Cold War after Maurice Bishop led a bloodless coup and installed a Marxist government in 1979 — five years after independence from Britain.

In October 1983, a radical faction of the government staged a palace coup, and on Oct. 19 a firing squad killed Bishop and 10 of his supporters.

Six days later, President Reagan defied U.N. and British criticism and ordered the invasion, saying American interests had to be protected. The U.S. government says 45 Grenadians, 24 Cubans and 19 U.S. troops were killed. Nearly 600 Americans were evacuated.

More than 82,000 of Grenada's some 108,000 people registered to vote. A record 64 candidates from six parties, including two independents, competed in the elections.

Mitchell's party won all 15 seats in 1999 but lost one when one party member broke ranks to join the United Labor Party, which now holds one seat.

National Democratic Congress leader Tillman Thomas rallied support during the election campaign with claims that the Caribbean nation's unemployment rate is at least 25 percent and accusations that Mitchell's party has run the country into its highest debt ever.

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