GRENADA Official name: Grenada Location: Caribbean International organisations: The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, The Commonwealth of Nations, The Non-Aligned Movement, The Organisation of American States, The United Nations, The World Trade Organisation Borders: None Coastline: Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea Land area: 344 Km2 Population: 89,000 Ethnicity: More than 80% of the population are of African descent. The remainder are of mixed African, European and Indian descent.

Languages: English is the official language and is generally understood. Most of the population speak a local English-French creole.
Religion: Nearly all the population are Christian, the majority Catholic.
Form of government: Constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. Barbados is divided into six parishes.
Capital: Saint George's
Constitution: The Constitution of Grenada came into effect on 7 February 1974. It was suspended in 1979 but reinstated in 1984.
Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Grenada. The Queen came to the British throne on 6 February 1952, and has held the title Queen of Barbados since 7 February 1974. The Queen's functions in Barbados are excercised by a Governor-General, appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister. The current Governor-General, Sir Daniel Williams, took office on 9 August 1996.
Head of government: The Prime Minister, appointed by the Governor-General. The Prime Minister is the leader of the largest party in the legislature and is accountable to it.
Legislature: Barbados has a bicameral Parliament. The House of Assembly has 15 members, elected for five-year terms from single-member constituencies. The Senate has 13 members, ten appointed by the Prime Minister and three appointed by the Leader of the Opposition.
Electoral authority: The Parliamentary Elections Office conducts national elections.
Freedom House 2005 rating: Political Rights 1, Civil Liberties 2

Political history

Grenada was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1498, but was never settled by the Spanish. A French settlement was established in 1650, and the French introduced African slaves to work on the sugar plantations. The island was captured by the British in 1762 and finally ceded in 1783, becoming a British crown colony. In 1833, Grenada became part of the British Windward Islands. In 1958 Grenada joined the Federation of the West Indies, which collapsed in 1962. In 1967 Grenada was granted internal self-government, and full independence followed in February 1974.

Grenada's first Prime Minister, Sir Eric Gairy, proved to be eccentric and autocratic, and in March 1979 he was deposed in a bloodless coup by the left-wing New Jewel Movement (NJM), led by Maurice Bishop. The constitution was suspended and a left-wing regime supported by Cuba was established. In October 1983 an internal struggle within the NJM led to Bishop's murder and power passed to an even more radical group led by Bernard Coard. Disorders broke out, and the US organised an intervention led by US troops and supported by other Caribbean governments.

After a period of interim government elections were held in December 1984 and constitutional government restored. A new conservative party, the New National Party (NNP) took office and remained in power until 1989, when it was defeated by the National Democratic Congress. The NNP returned to power in 1995 and has remained in office since.