Cricket West Indies President to Contest St. Vincent General Election

KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent – President of Cricket West Indies (CWI),Dr. Kishore Shallow, has been selected as a candidate for the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) to contest the next general election in St. Vincent and the Grenadines that is constitutionally due by February 2026, but widely expected by December 2025.

CWI president Dr. Kishore Shallow (left) with NDP leader Dr. Godwin Friday and former North Leeward MP, Roland “Patel” Matthews. (CMC Photo)Shallow, 40, will contest the North Leeward Constituency Division, ending months of speculation that he was courting  the opposition party, about a decade after he reportedly rejected a bid by the ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP) to woo him as a candidate.

Shallow holds a doctorate in business administration, specialising in finance, an MBA from the University of Wales Institute and a Bachelor of Science in applied business computing from the University of Sunderland, England.

He declined to give a substantial interview to the  Caribbean Media  Corporation (CMC) on Tuesday night immediately after his selection at Democratic House, the NDP’s headquarters.

Shallow told CMC off-camera that there were certain formalities he wanted to undergo before speaking to the media, and noted that his nomination was yet to be ratified by the party’s central committee.

He, however, expressed gratitude for the support he had received during the primary in which he defeated two other contenders.

“Let me say that just to express my gratitude to the people of North Leeward. I’m inspired by their confidence,” Shallow said and expressed confidence that he would wrest the seat from the ULP’s Carlos James, who is also the Tourism Minister.

“Well, it is the only reason why I put myself forward,” Shallow told CMC.

Shallow’s selection comes one month after a poll showed he had performed almost as well as Dr. Godwin Friday regarding who can do a better job as prime minister than  the 78-year-old incumbent Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves.

Friday, 64, was the most preferred alternative to Gonsalves as prime minister, with 21 per cent of respondents saying they thought that he could do a better job. Friday was followed by Shallow at 19 per cent.

Friday, welcomed Shallow’s selection, saying he represents the future of politics in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and that the riket administrator was the “overwhelming favourite” of the three candidates among the delegates in the selection process.

“There was a very open, transparent process of voting. And I’m delighted that the process went well and smoothly, and that the delegates had a free choice up to who the candidates were, and they chose Dr Shallow.”

Friday said Shallow’s selection as an NDP candidate in the next general election “is huge”

“Kishore Shallow is … a quality candidate. He’s the sort of candidate that brings a reputation of leadership in the region,” Friday said, adding that Shallow is also well-educated, articulate and young.

“It’s the future of politics in our country, quite frankly. And so, when we talk about having him as a candidate for the New Democratic Party, that could only be a win-win for me and for the party and for the people of North Leeward,” Friday said.

He said Shallow “brings a dedication, first and foremost, to representing the people of North Leeward, as he said here tonight, and he has the ability to do it”.

The opposition leader, who failed in his first bid in 2020 to lead the NDP to victory after its initial defeat at the polls in 2001, said he is putting together a team in the NDP that would be “the best ever to contest an election in this country.

“Because we don’t want just to change government. Of course, that’s the first priority. We have to change government. But we want to change the country.

“And you need people with vision, with ability — younger persons, who can take this forward and transform St. Vincent in the Grenadines from where it is now where we are known for all these negative things and all of our potential lies unrealised, undeveloped, because we have the wrong leadership in place. That is what I’m putting in place.”

Friday declined to disclose the vote count but said it was “near unanimity” in support for Shallow.

“We don’t usually disclose what the numbers are and so forth, but in this case, he had overwhelming support,” Friday said.

CMC was reliably informed that Shallow secured 32 votes while the other two candidates secured three and two votes respectively.

Friday said Shallow’s performance in the primary will be “mirrored on the ground in North Leeward.

“And I can’t wait to get out there and start campaigning on the ground with him.”

He said he believes Shallow is going to be “a transformative type of leadership for the constituency, joined with all the other candidates … and all those other persons who have been in this for quite some time and have the experience and have also built up, essentially, a strong base in their own constituencies that our aim now is to make North leeward similarly”.

He noted the NDP was founded in North Leeward  in 1975  which was also the first seat the party won in St. Vincent.

Shallow is one year and seven months into a two-year term as the CWI president after having served the regional cricket body as vice president from March 2019 to March 2023 and a director from March 2017 to March 2023.

Additionally, he served as president of the Windward Islands Cricket Board of Control from May 2019 to March 2023 and president of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Cricket Association Inc. from May 2014 to December 2020.