Marcus Neill Nicholas is a Saint Lucia

Saint Lucia

Saint Lucia is an island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It covers a land area of 620 km2 and has an...

n politician representing the Dennery North constituency for the United Workers Party

United Workers Party (Saint Lucia)

The United Workers Party is a conservative political party in Saint Lucia, led by Prime Minister Stephenson King and previously by John Compton.-History:...

 (UWP) in the House of Assembly of Saint Lucia

House of Assembly of Saint Lucia

The Parliament of Saint Lucia has two chambers. The House of Assembly is the popular elected chamber of the Legislature. It has 17 members, elected for a five year term in single-seat constituencies.-Current Composition:...

. He is also the Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly.

He has been involved in the political arena since 1997, when he lost an election to the Saint Lucia Labour Party

Saint Lucia Labour Party

The Saint Lucia Labour Party is a social democratic political party in Saint Lucia. It currently holds ten of the 17 seats in the House of Assembly.-History:...

 (SLP) candidate Tony Torrence. In the 2001 general election

Saint Lucian general election, 2001

General elections were held in Saint Lucia on 3 December 2001. The result was a victory for the Saint Lucia Labour Party, which won fourteen of the seventeen seats. Voter turnout was 52.3%.-Results:...

, Nicholas won the seat from Dennery North Constituency as a UWP candidate; in this election, the UWP only won three constituencies: Micoud North, Micoud South, and Dennery North. Nicholas subsequently became the Leader of the Opposition. In the midst of internal party disputes, the UWP announced that it had terminated his membership in the party on July 29, 2004.

Nicholas was narrowly re-elected as the UWP candidate from the Dennery North Constituency in the general election

Saint Lucian general election, 2006

The 2006 Saint Lucia general election took place in Saint Lucia on 11 December 2006. The election was fought between the Saint Lucia Labour Party and the United Workers Party which between them dominated politics in Saint Lucia...

 held on 11 December 2006, defeating SLP candidate Damian Grieves. Following the election, in which the UWP won a majority in the House of Assembly, UWP leader John Compton

John Compton

Sir John George Melvin Compton, KBE, PC was the first, fifth and eighth Prime Minister of Saint Lucia in 1979, from 1982 to 1996, and from 2006 until his death. Compton, who previously led Saint Lucia under British rule from 1964 to 1979, was the country's first leader when it became independent...

 offered Nicholas a junior position in the government, and Nicholas was reportedly unhappy about this. He nevertheless became Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Compton's government, which was sworn in on 19 December 2006.

Following Compton's death, he was one of only two UWP members of parliament (along with Rufus Bousquet

Rufus Bousquet

Rufus George Bousquet is a Saint Lucian politician who formerly represented the constituency of Choiseul for the United Workers Party. Bousquet won the seat at the general election held on 11 December 2006.However lost to Lorne Theophilus in the November 2011 General Elections.Bousquet served in...

) who did not receive posts in the government of Prime Minister Stephenson King

Stephenson King

Stephenson Toby King was the sixth Prime Minister of Saint Lucia. He represents the constituency of Castries North for the United Workers Party in the House of Assembly of Saint Lucia. King won the elections in 2006, unseating the incumbent Minister of Agriculture Ignatius Jean...

, which was appointed on September 12, 2007.