With Gonsalves as leader, the ULP won a majority in the popular vote in every general election from 1998 through 2015, though it failed to secure the majority of parliamentary seats in the 1998 election. In 2020, the ULP won the election, but did not win the popular vote.[6] On 7 November 2020, Gonsalves was sworn in for his fifth term as prime minister.[7]
Gonsalves is the current longest-serving democratically-elected state leader.
Gonsalves became involved in politics at university, as president of the University of West Indies' Guild of Undergraduates and Debating Society. In 1968, he led a student protest of the deportation of historian and intellectual Walter Rodney by the Jamaican government.[9]
In 2009 Gonsalves and the ULP led a referendum campaign[12] in favour of constitutional reform that would have abolished the country's constitutional monarchy, replacing Elizabeth II[13] with a non-executive president. The referendum was defeated, with 55.64% of voters rejecting the changes.[14] Gonsalves has persisted in his calls for the establishment of a presidency, proposing another referendum in 2022 to replace the monarchy while also voicing support to rename places in the country named after colonial figures such as Victoria Park.[15]
Gonsalves has been married twice; currently he is married to Eloise Harris. He has two sons by his first marriage, Camillo and Adam; one son by his second wife, Storm; and two daughters, Isis and Soleil. Camillo followed his father into politics, and is currently serving as Minister of Finance.[16]
On August 5, 2021, at a protest against mandatory vaccination from COVID-19 organized by trade unions representing nurses, police and other workers,[22] Gonsalves was attacked with a projectile near the entrance to Parliament. He sustained visible injuries to his head in the attack. The attack occurred during a large protest against masks and vaccinations in the country.[23] Gonsalves was rushed to the hospital where he was confirmed to be in a stable condition.[24][25]
The non-capitalist path of development: Africa and the Caribbean (One Caribbean Publishers; 1981)
History and the future: a Caribbean perspective (169 pages, 1994)
Notes on some basic ideas in Marxism-Leninism (University of the West Indies; 56 pages)
Theses
The role of labour in the political process of St. Vincent (1935–1970) (Master's Thesis, 1971)[29]
The politics of trade unions and industrial relations in Uganda (1950–1971) (Doctoral Thesis, 1974)[30]
Pamphlets
The Rodney affair and its aftermath (University of the West Indies; 21 pages, 1975)
The development and class character of the bourgeois state: the case of St. Vincent (University of the West Indies; 15 pages, 1976)
Controls and influences on the civil service and statutory bodies in the Commonwealth Caribbean: a preliminary discussion (University of the West Indies; 67 pages, 1977)
The development of the labour movement in St. Vincent (37 pages, 1977)
Who killed sugar in St. Vincent? (United Liberation Movement; 21 pages, 1977)
^Gonsalves, Ralph E. (1974). The politics of trade unions and industrial relations in Uganda (1950–1971) (DPhil). Manchester, UK: University of Manchester. OCLC973805455.