Ralph Everard Gonsalves (born August 8, 1946), also known as "Comrade Ralph", is the Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines. He has held that position since March 29, 2001. He is leader of the Unity Labour Party, and won the 2001 general elections by a landslide of 12 seats to 3, after a close run in the 1998 elections. He was re-elected in the December 2005 elections with the same parliamentary ratio.
He first entered political life as a student at the University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica; in 1968, as president of the Guild of Undergraduates, Gonsalves led the student protest at the banning of popular historian and intellectual Walter Rodney.
Gonsalves received his Ph.D. in political science from UWI, Mona, and went on to receive a law degree from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados before returning to practise law and become an active politician in his homeland.
He has said, "Modern terrorism is a barbarism out of sync with civilized life." |