General elections were held on Wednesday, 28 March 2001 for all directly elected members of the House of Assembly following the premature dissolution of this body.  General elections had previously been held in June 1998.

The unicameral Parliament of St. Vincent, the House of Assembly, comprises 15 elected Representatives and six Senators appointed by the Governor-General – four on the advice of the Prime Minister and two on the advice of the Leader of the Opposition.  The normal duration of the legislature is five years.

In May 2000, the then Prime Minister James Mitchel and the opposition leaders decided to schedule elections before 31 March 2001, more than two years ahead of the constitutional deadline. They agreed to bring them forward after a wave of anti-government strikes and street demonstrations sparked by Parliament's approval of new pensions and gratuities for parliamentarians.

The main opposition party, the centre-left Unity Labour Party (ULP), a merger of the Labour Party (SVLP) and the Movement for National Unity (MNU), based its campaign on initiatives for creating a system of good governance which included job creation as a major priority, toughness on crime and fighting corruption in government.  On its part, the incumbent New Democratic Party (NDP) that had been in power for the last 16 years centred its campaign around promises of diversifying the agriculture-based economy.

These were the first elections monitored by international observers, some of them coming from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).  On polling day, there were no reports of violence, although the ULP leader, Mr Gonsalves had reportedly received death threats.
There were 41 candidates from three political parties competing for the 15 seats at stake.  Results showed a landslide victory for the ULP, which took 12 of the 15 seats in Parliament.  The incumbent NDP won three seats.  Voter turnout was 69.2%.

On 29 March 2001, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, of the ULP, was sworn in for a five-year term as fourth Prime Minister by Governor-General Sir Charles Antrobus.

Successful candidates took their seats in Parliament on 17 April 2001, when a new session of the Seventh Parliament convened.  Hendrick Alexander was appointed as the new Speaker by Prime Minister Gonsalves.