| GEOGRAPHIC NAMES | GEOLOGY | USA STATS | CHINA STATS | COUNTRY CODES | AIRPORTS | RELIGION | JOBS |

Saint Lucia Government 2020

SOURCE: 2020 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK AND OTHER SOURCES











Saint Lucia Government 2020
SOURCE: 2020 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK AND OTHER SOURCES


Page last updated on January 27, 2020

Country name:
conventional long form: none
conventional short form: Saint Lucia
etymology: named after Saint LUCY of Syracuse by French sailors who were shipwrecked on the island on 13 December 1502, the saint's feast day
note: pronounced saynt-looshya

Government type:
parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy; a Commonwealth realm

Capital:
name: Castries
geographic coordinates: 14 00 N, 61 00 W
time difference: UTC-4 (1 hour ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)
etymology: in 1785, the village of Carenage was renamed Castries, after Charles Eugene Gabriel de La Croix de Castries (1727-1801), who was then the French Minister of the Navy and Colonies

Administrative divisions:
10 districts; Anse-la-Raye, Canaries, Castries, Choiseul, Dennery, Gros-Islet, Laborie, Micoud, Soufriere, Vieux-Fort

Independence:
22 February 1979 (from the UK)

National holiday:
Independence Day, 22 February (1979)

Constitution:
history: previous 1958, 1960 (preindependence); latest presented 20 December 1978, effective 22 February 1979
amendments: proposed by Parliament; passage requires at least two-thirds majority vote by the House of Assembly membership in the final reading and assent of the governor general; passage of amendments to various constitutional sections, such as those on fundamental rights and freedoms, government finances, the judiciary, and procedures for amending the constitution, require at least three-quarters majority vote by the House and assent of the governor general; passage of amendments approved by the House but rejected by the Senate require a majority of votes cast in a referendum (2018)

Legal system:
English common law

International law organization participation:
has not submitted an ICJ jurisdiction declaration; accepts ICCt jurisdiction

Citizenship:
citizenship by birth: yes
citizenship by descent only: at least one parent must be a citizen of Saint Lucia
dual citizenship recognized: yes
residency requirement for naturalization: 8 years

Suffrage:
18 years of age; universal
[see also: Suffrage country ranks ]

Executive branch:
chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952); represented by Governor General Neville CENAC (since 12 January 2018)
head of government: Prime Minister Allen CHASTANET (since 7 June 2016)
cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister
elections/appointments: the monarchy is hereditary; governor general appointed by the monarch; following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or majority coalition usually appointed prime minister by governor general; deputy prime minister appointed by governor general

Legislative branch:
description: bicameral Parliament consists of:
Senate (11 seats; 6 members appointed on the advice of the prime minister, 3 on the advice of the leader of the opposition, and 2 upon consultation with religious, economic, and social groups; members serve 5-year terms)
House of Assembly (17 seats; members directly elected in single-seat constituencies by simple majority vote to serve 5-year terms)
elections: Senate - last appointments on 12 July 2016 (next in 2021)
House of Assembly - last held on 6 June 2016 (next to be held in 2021)
election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - NA; composition - men 8, women 3, percent of women 27.3%
House of Assembly - percent of vote by party - UWP 54.8%, SLP 44.1%, other 1.1%; seats by party - UWP 11, SLP 6; composition - men 14, women 3, percent of women 17.6%; note - total Parliament percent of women 21.4%

Judicial branch:
highest courts: the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) is the superior court of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States; the ECSC - headquartered on St. Lucia - consists of the Court of Appeal - headed by the chief justice and 4 judges - and the High Court with 18 judges; the Court of Appeal is itinerant, traveling to member states on a schedule to hear appeals from the High Court and subordinate courts; High Court judges reside in the member states with 4 on Saint Lucia; Saint Lucia is a member of the Caribbean Court of Justice
judge selection and term of office: chief justice of Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court appointed by Her Majesty, Queen ELIZABETH II; other justices and judges appointed by the Judicial and Legal Services Commission, an independent body of judicial officials; Court of Appeal justices appointed for life with mandatory retirement at age 65; High Court judges appointed for life with mandatory retirement at age 62
subordinate courts: magistrate's court

Political parties and leaders:
Lucian People's Movement or LPM [Therold PRUDENT]
Saint Lucia Labor Party or SLP [Philip J. PIERRE]
United Workers Party or UWP [Allen CHASTANET]

International organization participation:
ACP, AOSIS, C, Caricom, CD, CDB, CELAC, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, ISO, ITU, ITUC (NGOs), MIGA, NAM, OAS, OECS, OIF, OPANAL, OPCW, Petrocaribe, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WCO, WFTU (NGOs), WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
Ambassador Anton Edsel EDMUNDS (since 8 September 2017)
chancery: 1628 K Street NW, Suite 1250, Washington, DC 20006
telephone: [1] (202) 364-6792 through 6795
FAX: [1] (202) 364-6723
consulate(s) general: New York

Diplomatic representation from the US:
the US does not have an embassy in Saint Lucia; the US Ambassador to Barbados is accredited to Saint Lucia

Flag description:
cerulean blue with a gold isosceles triangle below a black arrowhead; the upper edges of the arrowhead have a white border; the blue color represents the sky and sea, gold stands for sunshine and prosperity, and white and black the racial composition of the island (with the latter being dominant); the two major triangles invoke the twin Pitons (Gros Piton and Petit Piton), cone-shaped volcanic plugs that are a symbol of the island

National symbol(s):
twin pitons (volcanic peaks), Saint Lucia parrot; national colors: cerulean blue, gold, black, white

National anthem:
name: Sons and Daughters of St. Lucia
lyrics/music: Charles JESSE/Leton Felix THOMAS
note: adopted 1967


NOTE: 1) The information regarding Saint Lucia on this page is re-published from the 2020 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Saint Lucia Government 2020 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Saint Lucia Government 2020 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.
2) The rank that you see is the CIA reported rank, which may have the following issues:
  a) They assign increasing rank number, alphabetically for countries with the same value of the ranked item, whereas we assign them the same rank.
  b) The CIA sometimes assigns counterintuitive ranks. For example, it assigns unemployment rates in increasing order, whereas we rank them in decreasing order.






This page was last modified 27-Jan-20
Copyright © 1995- ITA (all rights reserved).


    . Feedback