Leaders call for no-confidence motion withdrawals, seeking resolution

key figure in the Democratic Labour Party at the centre of its internal power struggles has withdrawn his lawsuit challenging the suspension of party president Dr Ronnie Yearwood and general secretary Steve Blackett.

Longstanding member Ricardo Williams told Barbados TODAY: “I decided to withdraw from the case, with the hope that we as a party can settle this dispute, once and for all. I am a firm believer in democracy; and that was the major reason I decided to go to the court initially to settle the dispute.”

With this announcement, made hours after the DLP stalwart and the other warring side appeared in the High Court, Yearwood and Blackett, currently on suspension, insisted that all no-confidence motions must now be withdrawn.

But it remains to be seen if other party stalwarts, including Blackett himself, would walk away from their motions and counter-motions challenging both the elected leaders and the men who replaced them.

Williams said: “We cannot allow any institution in Barbados, and certainly not the Democratic Labour Party, to operate outside of the confines of democracy. The president, Ronnie Yearwood, and the general secretary, Steve Blackett, were elected and re-elected by the members of the Democratic Labour Party; and they can only be removed by the members of the Democratic Labour Party with a vote.

“They cannot be bulldozed by a few people fighting for power. It just cannot happen. Democracy must prevail in Barbados. It has to prevail,” Williams insisted as he ended the lawsuit against interim president Andre Worrell and acting general secretary Pedro Shepherd.

The call for withdrawing the no-confidence motions was made on Tuesday by the suspended president Dr Yearwood and general secretary Blackett, the latter having himself filed a confidence motion in support of his boss and a no-confidence motion against Political Leader Ralph Thorne, the Leader of the Opposition.

Earlier, attorney Neil Marshall who represented Worrell and also spoke on behalf of attorney Hal Gollop’s client, acting general secretary Shepherd, embraced Williams’ position that the matter be resolved internally.

“There are no winners or losers in this entire episode and if there are any winners, the winners we expect will be the people of Barbados who can now resign themselves to the party itself addressing and dealing with the issues that they are expected to deal with as a mature political party,” Marshall declared.

Thorne who was in Parliament when he received the news of the lawsuit’s withdrawal, said he hoped the action would now lead to a speedy mending of fences within the opposition party.

“We hope that the organs of the DLP will arrive at a resolution that will restore pride and dignity to His Excellency, Mr. Errol Barrow’s party,” Thorne told Barbados TODAY.

“It is ironically significant that I was in Parliament, because I have always reserved my political energies in defence of the people and in defence of the DLP at the parliamentary and national level, being always aware that the people’s and party’s business should be given priority over any internal dispute that did not affect the price of bread, the safety of the citizens, the infelicities in government, nor the moral abuse of our children in a cultural abyss.”

“The question of leadership,” he said, “was for me never a matter of contention. The Constitution of Barbados describes me as Leader of the Opposition and the constitution of the DLP describes me as Political Leader. I never sought more than that and I never sought to disturb the law.

“Apart from being political leader, I am an ordinary member of the General Council and I will continue to serve in those capacities,” he stated.

The opposition leader pledged to continue to put the case for the DLP as a credible alternative government.

He suggested that the party must now express “deepest” gratitude to Worrell, Shepherd and Annette Wood for managing the party’s administrative affairs “during this turbulent period”.

While Shepherd also holds a no-confidence motion over Yearwood’s head, the veteran party member who lodged the first one against the president, general secretary and the entire party executive disclosed on Tuesday that any decision to withdraw his would depend on a ruling by the general council regarding the status of his resolution.

Hartley Reid, who in April filed a no-confidence motion against Yearwood, Blackett and the executive council, said now that the court has accepted Williams’ decision to withdraw his legal action, that case will now join his to go before the general council.

“It reverts now over to the general council, where the general council now has to decide on my position,” Reid told Barbados TODAY. “The general council has already set up the disciplinary committee, and the disciplinary committee is to look into the complaint brought against the same two gentlemen, the president and the general secretary.

“So, I have not heard any word from the general council relative to my no-confidence motion. So, fortunately or unfortunately for me, this coincides with coming to the end of the year, and the conference is for September. So, I do not know how quickly or how long the disciplinary committee is going to take to deliberate over the issue with the president and the general secretary. So, I don’t have any action to take until I hear officially, from the general council as to my vote of no-confidence.”

But the president and general secretary were adamant that going forward, all such motions must be taken off the table.

The party’s public relations officer, Stacia Browne, relayed the leaders’ message that all no-confidence motions must be withdrawn, not just Blackett’s. “All the no-confidence motions…you would know there were more than one no-confidence motion that was on the table. All of them would have to be withdrawn…A-L-L, all,” she declared.

Pressed to specify the source of this message, she replied: “It’s coming from the party…it’s coming from the leadership of the party, Ronnie and Steve, the leadership of the party.”

Political scientist Peter Wickham believes that if Blackett were to withdraw his no-confidence motion, it could lead to a resolution. He suggested that coupled with the withdrawal of the court action, the removal of the no-confidence motion would start the DLP on a path of being able to challenge the ruling BLP.

“Overall, it’s good for the DLP,” Wickham told Barbados TODAY. “I think it will help to refocus the DLP’s energy on trying to get the party back together. I do note that they have taken aim at the Barbados Labour Party in all of this, notwithstanding. But I do feel that they need to look internally and put their house in order, get some candidates in place, get some public pronouncements regarding their own internal position; and thereafter they can take on the Barbados Labour Party in due course.”

The pollster welcomed the decision by Williams to take the legal challenge off the table and to deal with their divisions internally.

“My sense,” Wickham said, “is that the muscularity of the language initially has given way to a reality to suggest that this is really a political and not a legal matter, again, consistent with my own views, and it should be treated as such. I also note that there has been some indication that Steve Blackett, who to my mind, is a huge part of the problem, has taken a slightly different position and has resigned himself to, one could say, a junior role in the whole matter.”

He argued that Yearwood’s presidency of the Dems could be “salvaged” by his performing an administrative role.

“I think that the other key players which would be Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne and his group can be harnessed in terms of taking the Democratic Labour Party forward. So, my sense is that they do have an opportunity now. We need to hear from Steve Blackett regarding his own vote of no-confidence…an attempt to remove the opposition leader. And if that is withdrawn, if that is resolved, and if he decides to take the path of least resistance, my feeling is that there can be a mending of fences.” (emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)