Yearbook 2004
Antigua and Barbuda. For the first time in 50 years, there was a change of power in Antigua and Barbuda when the country went to parliamentary elections on March 23. The bourgeois government party Antigua Labor Party (ALP), which is largely dominated by the Bird family, was seen defeated by the opposition gathered in the left-middle Alliance United Progressive Party (UP). UPP received just over 55% of the vote and took home 12 of the 17 seats. ALP received almost 42%, which, due to the design of the election system, only lasted for four terms. In an extra election in April, the final mandate went to the regional party Barbuda People’s Movement (BPM).
The total population in Antigua and Barbuda is 97,940 people in 2020. The Prime Minister became the 55-year-old union activist and UP leader Baldwin Spencer. The Bird family has been regularly associated with scandals since the 1950s, but still managed to stay in power. This time, however, the public seemed to have had enough since Prime Minister Lester Bird figured in connection with both sex and corruption scandals.
Bird also lost his seat in Parliament, as did several other leading people in the ALP. Bird denied all charges.