BLP reminded: ‘Only the PM can call elections’

THE Barbados Labour Party (BLP) is being reminded that there is only one person in this country who can call elections, and that is Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Freundel Stuart.

Former Deputy High Commissioner for Barbados to the United Kingdom, Donville Johnson, is also reminding the Opposition that this is enshrined in the Constitution of Barbados and that the PM has a time in which to call – 90 days after the first sitting of parliament or five years – the next general election, constitutionally due in 2018.

“So, what is all this talk by the leader of the Opposition and her cohorts about calling elections, when the time has not as yet elapsed? You can start making noise if that time had elapsed and they were breaking the Constitution, but you are within your constitutional rights to call the elections in that given time,” he stressed, also querying, “Why are they marching on March 11? What do marches achieve?”

Johnson is urging Barbadians not to dwell and not to allow the negativity of the Opposition to bear down on them. He said that no matter what the Prime Minister and Ministers do, it will be met with great negativity.

“But, you would realise that the Opposition doesn’t come up with any real original ideas for you to argue and discuss. It is that they wait for the Government to say something and jump on it – they jump on it and criticise,” he observed.

The former Deputy High Commissioner, who was at the time delivering the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) weekly lunchtime lecture, made it clear that Prime Minister Stuart is fully aware of what is happening in this country. He also expressed that the DLP will win the next election.

“Because our current Prime Minister dares to be different from previous Prime Ministers. Because our PM analyses things, keeps things within house, does not jump at the utterances – sometimes silly utterances of some of these agitators, does not mean that he is not thinking, does not mean that he does not have solutions and does not mean that he does not consult with God... He confessed to me that he puts Almighty God first,” Johnson told those gathered, while indicating that the way forward for Barbados is to have trust and belief in God.

“But, if I had to make a criticism of countries in the Caribbean and their leaders (not only Prime Ministers but leaders on the whole) is that they seek their own guidance, their own wisdom, their own knowledge and forget the one person who really determines what happens in every country – that is Almighty God. The quicker some of our leaders get back to asking for God’s guidance in the way forward, the better it will be,” he added. (TL)