SMEAR CAMPAIGN

THE island’s upcoming general elections is shaping up to be one of the “nastiest” ever, believes one government minister.

Finance Minister, Christopher Sinckler, made this clear as he addressed the Democratic Labour Party’s City branch meeting last Saturday night.

Saying there were rumours circulating about him and Minister of Transport and Works, Michael Lashley, being involved in criminal activities, he labelled this as part of a ‘Get Chris’ Campaign by supporters of the Barbados Labour Party as a bid to remove them from office.

He nevertheless insisted that there were “operatives who are working to destroy people’s characters in Barbados”.

Citing several instances of “fake news”, the MP for St. Michael North West said, “This is going to be easily the nastiest campaign that would ever be fought in Barbados.”

“It can unnerve people when you see the extent to which some of these Labour Party people will go to secure political office,” he said, while telling the DLP faithful, gathered at the Wesley Hall Junior School, that the situation would get worse in the next months.

“It’s going to get worse. This is not the only thing. They’re going to put out other stuff too,” he insisted, saying that these individuals were seeking “to undermine public confidence and trust in people”.

Stating that he was unbothered by the accusations, he nevertheless warned that a previous allegation levelled against him had proven financially beneficial to him and as such, he was prepared to go such a route again if the need arose.

“A couple years ago they put out a video supposedly of me involved in some sexual act with some woman. I didn’t pay it much mind as I am not paying this other thing much mind either, but fortunately for me, the right person said [it in] the wrong place at the right time. So a local media house made my lawyers a little bit richer than they ought to have been. They also gave me some money that I didn’t have to work for,” Sinckler outlined. (JMB)