The Caribbean has often been described as a zone of stable democracy. This has been evidenced by regular elections, peaceful transfers of power and comparatively credible electoral administration. This reputation has generally distinguished the region within the Global South. Recent elections, however, suggest that beneath this record of stability, a more complex pattern is unfolding.
Between early 2025 and February 2026, seven Caribbean countries held general elections; one of the most geopolitically charged electoral cycles in the region’s modern history. These elections unfolded across different political systems but under strikingly similar political and structural pressures. Suriname voted in May 2025, Trinidad and Tobago in late April, Guyana in September, Saint Lucia in December, and Barbados in February 2026.
Key regional developments included renewed US hemispheric hegemony, the Venezuelan crisis, the emergence of Guyana as a major oil producer and China’s deepening regional footprint and the Caribbean asserting its own prominence in climate diplomacy. Another important milestone in Caribbean international relations has been the appointment of the first Secretary General of the OAS from the Caribbean, Ambassador Albert Ramdin of Suriname.
On September 3, 2025, Jamaicans went to the polls and returned the Jamaica Labour Party to office. The outcome was orderly, the transfer of power peaceful, and the electoral machinery performed well. With a voter turnout of 39.5 per cent, fewer than four in ten Jamaicans considered the exercise worth their time. In a country that once prided itself on vigorous electoral participation, that number alerts us to an important shift. Jamaica’s election represents but one moment in an extraordinary sequence.
FOUR THEMES
At least four themes emerge across this entire cycle. The first is declining voter participation. Jamaica’s has experienced the most drastic decline, but is not an exception. Trinidad and Tobago recorded approximately 54 per cent, the lowest since 1971; and although voter turnout in Suriname at approximately 69 per cent was relatively high by comparison, the trajectory still trends downward. Declining participation has emerged as a structural feature of contemporary Caribbean democracy, and it signals a deepening disconnection between citizens and the political process. It can no longer be dismissed as a pandemic anomaly.
The second theme surrounds issues of campaign financing. Every single international observer mission deployed during the 2025/2026 electoral cycle flagged this area as problematic; and not for the first time. In Trinidad and Tobago campaign finance was one of the top concerns of the Commonwealth observer group in 2025. The mission noted the country’s limited regulatory framework urged the government to take heed of its longstanding recommendation to implement policy changes in this regard. Similar concerns have been echoed by the Carter Center and OAS on weak or nonexistent regulations for campaign finance in Guyana, Suriname, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. For Jamaica, campaign finance regulation has been an OAS recommendation since at least 2016 and while the country has enacted finance legislation, in practice, the processes remain opaque. The flow of political money without meaningful transparency, oversight, or accountability undermines public trust.
A third emerging theme is that of disinformation. From Guyana to Saint Lucia, unverified claims circulated rapidly through WhatsApp and Facebook during the campaign seasons, often outpacing any institutional capacity for correction. All societies are adapting to this new information environment. The problem is not unique to the Caribbean, but the region’s small populations and tight social networks make viral misinformation particularly potent. In communities where everyone knows someone who “heard” something, a false claim can travel from a private chat group to a polling station conversation with alarming speed.
Fourth, women’s political participation improved marginally in some contexts. Barbados re-elected Mia Mottley as prime minister for a third term while in a landmark moment, Suriname elected its first female president with approximately 31 per cent of seats held by women.
SHIFT COMPOSITION
Guyana stands as a partial exception, with quota provisions that have begun to shift composition. Jamaica’s 2025 general election saw 19 women elected to the House of Representatives, representing 30.2 per cent of all seats, marking the highest proportion of female parliamentarians in the country’s history and a meaningful step toward gender-balanced governance. Young Jamaicans showed growing civic energy during the campaign period, with youth-led civil society organisations and digital advocacy groups demonstrating a vibrant democratic voice that, if channelled into sustained electoral participation, holds real promise for reversing the long trend of youth disengagement at the polls.
Beneath these structural patterns run lingering currents of race and age. In Jamaica’s 2025 election, race operated less as an explicit campaign theme than as a structuring logic of political legitimacy; shaping how leadership was read and credibility assessed, even when no one said so directly. In Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, electoral outcomes continued to reflect historically entrenched ethnic voting patterns, with only modest cross-racial shifts. Meanwhile, debates about leadership longevity and generational renewal were evident in Saint Vincent and Saint Lucia, where senior leaders defended their vigour while younger citizens were simultaneously depicted as disengaged.
For decades, the Caribbean has been justly celebrated as one of the Global South’s most electorally stable regions. That reputation remains in the aftermath of the 2025–2026 cycle. Elections were held within the prescribed time, results were accepted and power was peacefully transferred when required. These are core features of electoral democracy.
However, the central challenge facing Caribbean democracies is no longer primarily procedural. Legitimacy is now negotiated in a far more complex context and is shaped by identity tensions, digital environments, and resurgent geopolitical pressures. Stakeholders across the region have moved beyond assessing basic logistical and administrative elements of elections. They are currently requiring more accountability, representation, transparency and inclusiveness. Barbados’s decision to invite international observers for the first time in 2026 may also be interpreted as an acknowledgement of this shift.
The question, therefore, is no longer only whether Caribbean elections are free and fair. It is whether they continue to command trust and engagement and whether citizens experience them as meaningful exercises, worth their participation.
Dr Lisa Vasciannie lectures in international relations and is head of the Department of Government in the Faculty of Social Sciences at The University of the West Indies, Mona. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com
