Dame Sandra Mason new president-elect

BARBADOS has elected its first president.

Governor General Dame Sandra Mason was unanimously voted yesterday to be Barbados’ first president when Barbados officially becomes a republic on November 30 2021, at which time the country will also be celebrating its 55th anniversary of independence.

Yesterday a joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre created history, as Barbados took a major step on the path to becoming a republic at the end of next month.

Following announcements made by Speaker of the House of Assembly Arthur Holder, it was asked whether any member objected to the candidate being declared, at which time Opposition Senator Caswell Franklyn rose to his feet in objection.

As a result, the Honourable Speaker stated that in accordance with the Constitution he would suspend the sitting. Clerk of Parliament Pedro Eastmond explained that with the suspension, the Houses would break into individual Houses for the vote in a separate ballot.

On completion of the vote just after 11 am, both Houses voted unanimously with the House of Assembly voting 27-0 and the Senate voting 18-0 with one unreturned ballot. A two-thirds majority was needed for the vote to pass.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley described the election of Barbados’ first president as a “seminal moment”. “It is not one that we came to lightly. We have reached this moment, on the eve of our 55th year of independence...And this government, like those who went before, and who expressed confidence in the journey, even if not completing the process, we believe that the time has come for us to claim our full destiny...”

Prime Minister Mottley stated this is really not about November 30, 2021, but December 1, 2021.

“This is about being able to use this as the springboard that we as a nation need in order to confront a completely different reality.”

Acknowledging that there are those who have asked, “Why now?”, Prime Minister Mottley said if ever there was a time for the country to bind itself together and to have the confidence necessary to meet any challenges ahead, it is now.

“... And understanding sir, that when we look in the mirror,as the Right Excellent Errol Walton Barrow would have said, we must love what we see. And there can be no better way to reflect the love of self, learn to accept that one of your very own, born of this nation, shaped by this nation, adding to this nation, bringing honour to this nation, that that person should be elected here today.

“Like the leader of the Opposition, I take pride in the fact that it is a woman of the soil to whom this honour is being given and conferred by the members of both Houses of Parliament. Like the leader of the Opposition...I know only too well the journey that it has taken for women to come to any position that they did not hold before. And the extent to which it has been the subject of all kinds of difficulties. And regrettably, in some instances, misogyny.

“I know only too well that those of us for whom that honour is given, come not to be the first ever, but come to ensure that we will never be the last. And Mr. Speaker, I believe that that is the position of the person whom we have now elected as our first woman president, but also our first president of this nation, Barbados.”

Saying that Barbados should not be caught loitering on colonial premises in the third decade of the 21st century, Prime Minister Mottley opined that the decisions of the Parliament or the executive of this nation, should ultimately not be signed off on by those who are not born here and who do not appreciate the daily realities of those who live on the island.

She maintained however that this is not a condemnation of the British model, explaining that the time has come for Barbadians to express full confidence in themselves as a people “and to believe that it is possible for one born of this nation to sign off finally, and completely.”

The Prime Minister said that the country must now express with absolute confidence, that irrespective of the challenges, cognisant of the opportunities and conscious of the need for unity, that Barbados shall move forward on December 1 as the newest republic in the global community of nations. “Conscious that we are going not without concern on the part of some, but with absolute determination, that at 55 we must know who we are. We must live who we are and we must be who we are,” she said. (JH)