ST JOHN’S, Antigua — Antiguan Prime Minister Gaston Browne has called general elections for March 21, a year ahead of the constitutionally due date, saying he wanted to protect non-existent projects he claimed are in the pipeline for 2019.

But observers here insist Browne’s Antigua Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) is rapidly losing popularity among voters, having nothing to show after almost four years in office – during which he famously antagonised investors, including Sandals Resorts, the largest in the eastern Caribbean island.

Critics here also say that Browne is increasingly nervous over rising calls for him to show evidence that he has been exonerated of allegations that he received three million euros from disgraced Brazilian construction giant, Odebrecht which is enmeshed in an international bribery scandal.

Browne managed to frighten off investors in the hotel industry, threatening last year to introduce ”entrepreneurial socialism” under which he says he wants his and other Caribbean governments to acquire ownership in hotels in their territories on grounds that they are operating “like a plantation industry”.

With tourism accounting for 75 per cent of the island’s gross domestic product (GDP) of $1.5 billion, local opposition and tourism sources here charged that “what Browne is advocating is the complete obliteration of the country’s economy”.

Other Caribbean governments are instead seeking to attract foreign investment on the basis of realistic returns in a drastically competitive investment climate and an unusually stubborn global economic environment.

They point to his sustained attacks on Sandals Grande Antigua and its chairman, Jamaican Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart, the largest private employer of its people; the largest private earner of foreign exchange earner; the largest tax-payer; the biggest promoter of the island; and the hotel  responsible for the bulk of commercial flights into the island, bringing in visitors and taking out exports.

“After Browne’s scorched earth policy has succeeded in driving out hotel investors, he is clearly prepared to preside over a hungry, jobless population, empty hotel rooms, deserted skies and a government that cannot pay its bills, as long as he can call himself prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda,” said long-time investment consultant Brendon Phillip.

“What he is currently doing with his largest investor is something he dares not do with a non-Caricom investor, be it American, British, Canadian or any other. His behaviour, far from resembling that of a country’s leader, is more like that of a hooligan trying to intimidate,” Phillip said.

“He shows little respect even for the legal process of his own country. Those who are watching this debacle with disbelief agree on one thing: Browne has no concern about the adverse impact his behaviour is having on Antigua’s economic wellbeing.

“If he had the slightest concern he could hardly be expected to be attacking Sandals which is by far the best performing hotel in Antigua and the flagship hotel which promotes the island more than the Government itself.”

Political analyst Anthony DaCosta said: “It is becoming clearer by the day that the attacks on Sandals are the centrepiece of Browne’s political campaign for the general election which he has called, before his government’s fading popularity plunges even further.

“If you can beat down the island’s biggest hotelier, biggest foreign exchange earner and biggest employer, then you must be a big guy. After the election you can seek to mend fences and repair the damage, he seems to think. Unfortunately, it does not work like that in the very watchful, nervous investment community,” DaCosta wrote here.

“Browne is running a failed Government. One would have to feel sorry for the people of Antigua, as there is little or no new investment, something he is trying to distract from by issuing loud but empty threats to investors and his country’s media.

Sources close to the Administration said it is also known that Browne has not forgiven Stewart for turning down his request for a sizeable donation for his party’s election campaign and its new headquarters building.

Some local media personalities here have suggested that investors are also waiting on the prime minister to clear the air after accusations that he had received three million euros from Brazilian construction firm, Odebrecht which has been alleged to bribe numerous heads of government in Latin America to cover up or facilitate money laundering activities.

Browne strenuously denied the allegations, later saying that he had been exonerated after a private arrangement with the newspaper, El Pais which he had sued for defamation for carrying the original story quoting a former Odebrecht lawyer.

He has so far failed to provide proof of his exoneration, despite numerous calls from Antiguan media outlets, which he has instead attacked for being “unpatriotic”.