No need to celebrate new party

President of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Verla De Peiza is not seeing the need to celebrate the introduction of the People’s Party for Democracy and Development.

In fact, De Peiza told members of the media that it was not a new concept in Barbados for new political parties to be formed.

“I don’t know that there is any cause for any additional celebration in relation to this one. We all know the history of this political party. It has a history already. We know how it was created, we know when it was created, and we can speculate about why it was created,” De Peiza said.

The party, led by Opposition leader, Bishop Joseph Atherley, was officially launched last Saturday at the Courtyard Marriott, where the Bishop said that the party was of socialist democratic orientation and abiding by the slogan God, Growth, and Peace.

De Peiza, who appeared not to be moved by the new party, said the DLP has had 60 plus years working on behalf of the people of Barbados.

“We are satisfied that our work is not complete. We are also certain that we are the voice for the people of Barbados, and we will continue to sound on their behalf. That has been our agenda from the time our philosophy was written, and we will not be conceding it to anyone at this stage,” she said.

De Peiza added: “How we do things will change, but having people at the centre of our philosophy will never change for the Democratic Labour Party. I think we have seen some of the changes already. We are speaking more, we are attending functions more, and we are connecting with the people more. The other changes, we will not put a timeframe on them but you will see when we have our new logo it will be noticed, and when we make other changes they will be noticed. But we don’t need to make them the focus. What has to be the focus is how people feel about us, and that is really where we will be placing greater emphasis for the time being.”