Protect your right!
AGAINST the backdrop of concerns raised that vote buying could be creeping into the upcoming General Election, Prime Minister the Rt Honourable Freundel Stuart expressed his disapproval of any such action.
During his wrap up on a supplementary to the Estimates for the Electoral and Boundaries Commission, the Prime Minister exhorted that every attempt must be made to ensure that this practice is discouraged in Barbados.
According to him, “People should understand that the right to exercise a choice in an election, as I said, was a long fought for right and therefore that it should not be commercialised as we have seen happen in some instances in Barbados in recent times.”
He noted that there are some countries such as the United States where the money spent by candidates is openly tallied. “That might suit them, but it does not suit us. And I set my face firmly against that approach to the electoral process in Barbados.
“Not surprisingly, because of that there are now extended investigations about foreign interest in that country as well. We have to watch these currents and ensure that they do not flow through Barbados. But the government and the DLP express themselves strongly against this business of vote buying. We are not for it and we do not want to see that practice catch permanent root in Barbados.”
He noted that during the last election, there were two allegations raised about money used during the elections, however none were related to the Democratic Labour Party. He noted that both investigations were eventually dropped.
“Outside of those two cases we have not had any serious problems on this issue, but as I said I am at one with the member for St. George North [Gline Clarke] that we have to guard what we have achieved in Barbados very jealously. We have to protect free and fair elections; we have to protect our democracy to the extent that that democracy has anything to do with the right to vote. We have to protect it.
“Registering these achievements is one thing, but being able to protect them is something completely different. The job of protection is sometimes as difficult or more difficult than trying to register the successes in the first place.”
Prime Minister Stuart also agreed with the Opposition Member of Parliament to be mindful of “minority groups” who may “want to impose their own will on the electorate”.
“This all goes back to the fact that political battles are never finally won. We fought for universal adult suffrage, we got it … If we don’t try to preserve it we will lose it because there are always people who feel that they should have control over the decision-making process.
“That the people out there in our villages, in the Ivy, and Bayland and Cat’s Castle and elsewhere, don’t have enough sense to know what they want. And therefore that some special group of people, invariably a group that has money and influence, should come and impose their will on the previously expressed will of people in our villages and influence decision-making process for their benefit.”
“…So the member or St. George North is on a good point. We have fought for universal adult suffrage for the maids, carpenters, artisans, all those people out there. They are not stupid people. They know what they want and who they want.”
“And a plague on the house of all those people who believe that they are ignorant and that their money and their will should be superimposed by the choices made by people so that they can have decisions made to promote their interests. We have to be careful with that,” he warned. (JH)