( L - R ) Mitchell, Tillman

ST GEORGE'S, Grenada (CMC):

When they go to the polling stations today, Grenadians will have the opportunity of either sticking to the path the Spice Isle has travelled for the last 13 years or following the winds of change that have swept aside many incumbent governments in the Caribbean over the last 18 months.

Keith Mitchell, the 62-year-old Howard University-trained mathe-matician, hopes to lead his ruling New National Party (NNP) into the general election to secure an unpre-cedented fourth consecutive term in office.

Rocky relationship

But standing in his way is 63-year-old Tillman Thomas - the University of the West Indies-trained lawyer and leader of the main opposition National Demo-cratic Party (NDP) who, in 1981, was detained by the People's Revolutionary Government when Grenada rewrote its history by becoming the first English-speaking Caribbean country to have changed a government by the bullet rather than the ballot.

The relationship between the two political opponents has been acrimonious, with Tillman lashing out at the prime minister last Saturday night, likening him to Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.

Referring to the government's ban on motorcades in the lead-up to today's poll, Tillman said: "Our country is quickly becoming like Zimbabwe. The similarities between Mitchell and Mugabe are clear. They are both desperate despots who do not have the support of their people, who are trying to use any means necessary to stay in power," he said in a national address.

Mitchell, who has led the NNP since 1989, entered parliament in 1984 as minister of communications, works and public utilities before being elevated to the post of prime minister on June 22, 1995.

But his detractors have claimed that such progress has come at the expense of the country's reputation. The prime minister had become the main target for the opposition in the campaign, despite his insistence that a one-man commission of inquiry had found no evidence to support allegations that he had received a substantial sum of money from his former trade ambassador during a trip to Europe a few years ago.

Mitchell had consistently denied that he had done anything illegal after the opposition parties here called for an investigation into a 2004 article in a Miami-based publication that claimed the prime minister had received money for granting a diplomatic posting to German businessman Eric Resteiner.

Telling statement

The prime minister said the 83-page report submitted by prominent Barbadian jurist Sir Richard Cheltenham after seven months of public hearings had vindicated him.

"If you look on page 44 of that report, the most telling statement made in that report concerning the evidence on this issue, there is no shred of evidence against the prime minister of this country," Mitchell declared.

Born November 12, 1946, Mitchell is also the lead prime minister with responsibility for sports, particularly cricket, within the quasi-Cabinet of the Caribbean Community grouping.