Antigua and Barbuda: Labour’s Rawdon Turner gets clean sweep over UPP in St Peter by-elections

Antigua and Barbuda: Rawdon Turner of Antigua & Barbuda Labour Party has emerged victorious in the St Peter by-election on Tuesday. Turner secured a major victory over United Progressive Party’s George Wehner by a whopping difference of 1102 votes.  

The by-election was held following the murder of former St Peter’s MP Asot Michael which left his seat vacant since November 4, 2024.  

According to the preliminary results of the by-election, Turner received 1672 votes while Wehner got only 570 votes with 31 rejected ballots out of a total of 2273 votes casted. The results were announced on Wednesday morning by Returning Officer Reverend Stephen Samuels at the Parham Primary School in Antigua, declaring Turner’s clean sweep victory in the elections. 

Following the official declaration of the result during the early hours of Wednesday, Turner said that it is an honour to serve in that capacity and he looks forward to offering his skillset to nation building. 

He further said that he based his campaign primarily on the truth while acknowledging that there are several issues within the constituency that needs to be solved. Turner believes that much of the work that he put in before the by election was announced helped him cement his victory.  

The politician added that he made promises to the constituents leading up to the 2023 general elections and even though he was not successful, he stayed on the ground and for that he remained committed to serving the people.  

He also emphasised that he has no intentions of shadowing the late MP but plans to walk his own path and lead this constituency of St Peter to the best of his ability. He was also seen holding the flag of Labour Party and waving it in the air to showcase his happiness over this victory.  

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Gaston Browne expressed his full confidence in Turner even before the voting took place. He said that he was pretty sure that he will take it by a big margin and added that this constituency will remain a garrison for the Antigua Barbuda Labour Party. 

Soon after the victory, Browne said that the people of St Peter overwhelmingly showed their confidence in the ability of Turner to address the needs of the constituency and noted that even though he lost in the last general elections, but he never gave up on the people of St Peter as he continued to advocate for them and this led him to achieving this major victory.  

The country’s leader further announced that Governor General, Sir Rodney Williams will tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. at Government House, present the instruments of appointment to Rawdon Turner as a member of the Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda.