TO THE POLLS

November 11th is the day that the people of St. George North will be heading to the polls to choose their new Parliamentary Representative. This was announced by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley during an emergency press conference held late yesterday evening at the Barbados Defence Force St. Ann’s Fort Base.

With former Member of Parliament Gline Clarke’s resignation becoming effective on September 30, the constitutional machinery has been working and as such, Prime Minister Mottley explained that she received correspondence from Her Excellency Dame Sandra Mason stating that the post had to be filled within 90 days pursuant to the Constitution of Barbados. After yesterday’s Cabinet meeting at the island’s military headquarters, Mottley informed members of the media and all of Barbados via a live stream that both the nomination day and election day were set in stone.

“Her Excellency has now signed the writ and the writ will reflect the fact that nomination day in Barbados for the constituency of St. George North to select the next Member of Parliament for that constituency will be Monday the 26th of October, 2020. And the election date for the return of a representative in the House of Assembly will now be Wednesday November 11th, 2020. It is against that background that we anticipate that the writ will be returned on the following day, as is accustomed, which will be the 12th of November,” she said, adding that there would be a special date for foreign electors and the security forces.

Calling it an unusual election as it falls in the middle of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Mottley asked all parties, candidates and constituents to be vigilant and revealed that the circumstances would force a new element into the local political landscape.

“We recognise that there will likely be far less political rallies than would normally be the situation in an election. There will be some and I think that we have managed to be able to work out the spacing issue. But is also means that there will be challenges in terms of the intensity of interaction and to that extent the Cabinet has been consulting and we have agreed that the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation and all of the media houses, along with the Barbados Association of Journalists should meet because the CBC is prepared to make available for the country broadcast time for three debates within the election because we accept that persons must be informed and persons must be capable of making informed choices. And given the fact that with COVID the level of political meetings as we have come to know them in Barbados is likely to be far less than usual, then we think it is only fair that all of the candidates who are eventually nominated or intend to be nominated should be given an opportunity to participate in these debates on state television,” it was noted.

Going on to state that there were conversations held with the Chief Electoral Officer to further dilute the density of persons as it relates to guidelines and arrangements on polling day, Mottley said that she trusted the officer and his department to formulate the necessary protocols.

“They will now, in the midst of preparing their protocols for the conduct of a poll in a pandemic, take into account the desire of all of us for there to be a reduction of the density of persons going into any particular room at once without affecting the capacity of persons to vote. We now know how COVID is no respecter of man or woman, of status or office, and to that extent, we hope that persons will in fact co-operate and be sensible. And to recognise that we have a constitutional responsibility to fill the seats in Parliament, but we also can do so in a way that does not put people at risk in any way,” she said. (MP)