Comment on Barbados Election
By P.M. Stephenson King

The lesson which has emerged from the outcome of the elections in Barbados is that the intelligence and resolve of the electorate must not be underestimated or taken for granted by politicians in the region.
I believe the people of Barbados who are an enlightened people, educationally and politically, felt insulted by Owen Arthur’s desperate allegations in the dying days of the campaign that Taiwanese money was being used to influence the elections in Barbados.
It suggested to Barbadians that their votes could be bought to vote otherwise than they intended. I had noted in an article last week that this platform rhetoric was characteristic of someone who was staring defeat in the face.
Owen Arthur also made some very emotive statements in the announcement of the date for the elections when he said that he would see to it that the Democratic Labour Party (D.L.P.) never ever held the reins of Government in Barbados.
This was a shocking and frightening statement to make, and Barbadians reacted with consternation at the implications of such a statement to the future prospects of multi-party democracy in Barbados.
There were other factors such as the deteriorating health service at the nation’s major hospital the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which was once the country’s pride and joy, and which has been plunged into controversy recently.

There were several financial scandals among them the housing project in which the former leader of the D.L.P. Clyde Mascoll, now a member of Owen Arthur’s party, was implicated. The highway project which had a cost overrun from a budgeted $119 million to $262 million, and the millions spent on the Oval Cricket Ground for World Cup Cricket, which like St. Lucia’s is lying idle and unutilized.
Another major issue for Barbadians in general and the youth in particular was the concern that the high cost of land and housing in Barbados made them feel that they did not have a stake in the future of their country.
The trend in recent elections in the region indicates a desire for change and more accountable governments which do not operate in a transparent manner in the way the resources of the state are used.
It is a victory for democracy which we in the Caribbean should fiercely protect and send a strong signal to incumbent administrations that they cannot function in a manner that ignores the concerns and welfare of the people without being called to account.
The freedom to choose the people’s representatives is a sacred right that should be enjoyed by all people of the world.
In his attempt to align himself with a country that does not respect that right our own leader of the opposition has lost another round in which the will of the people won in the end.