“There’s no vacancy in the ULP whether in terms of its leadership or prime ministership,” he told the 40 member Vincentian community of mostly students here on Saturday. 

“Now I am not going to live forever. And the truth is this, you have a run of three consecutive five-year term, it is not a bad run,” said Gonsalves, who has been prime minister since 2001.

Only Sir James Mitchell has been prime minister of the multi-island nation longer, with four successive terms from 1984 to 2000.

Despite a health scare just as he was travelling to the Middle East in late April and his own repeated statements that he would not seek re-election, Gonsalves suggested that the ULP had determined he should stand again.