Claims of gamesmanship, victimisation as election battle heats up

by Emmanuel Joseph

Fears of victimisation have raised their ugly head as the St George North by-election campaign begins to heat up.

While not pinpointing the source of the alleged victimisation, the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) has said a local musician whose professional services the party offered to engage, is the apparent target.

“What we have had is an issue with a musician to sing the [campaign] song. They expressed concerns about possible victimisation,” DLP president Verla DePeiza told Barbados TODAY after being asked to comment on reports of difficulty
in securing certain professionals to work for her party’s campaign.

Earlier suggestions reaching Barbados TODAY were that the DLP was experiencing challenges securing stage management, sound crew and even artistes for its election campaign.

“That is not true,” DePeiza declared, explaining that the problem only involved one musician who complained of possible victimisation.

But Dwight Sutherland, manager for the ruling Barbados Labour Party’s (BLP) by-election campaign in support of Senator Toni Moore, this afternoon sought to distance the party from any such association.

“This is a party that practises politics of inclusion not victimisation. We are not a party that victimises anyone. Why would we want to stop someone from singing a song for the Democratic Labour Party candidate. Are there musicians that are attached to political parties who can’t work for the opposition? Why would we want to stop someone from working . . . .from earning a living through what they do daily?” Sutherland asked.

DePeiza is also waving a red flag in relation to the timing of the launch of two projects by the Mia Mottley Administration
in St George yesterday and today.

Yesterday, Minister of the Environment and National Beautification Adrian Forde launched the Clean and Green National Campaign at Flat Rock and today Minister of Housing, Lands and Maintenance Dr William Duguid broke ground for construction of houses at Todds.Minister Forde joined workers from the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) and the National Conservation Commission (NCC) in clearing land at Flat Rock to make way for his ministry’s clean and green initiative which is expected to be replicated in communities across Barbados.

Addressing the launch of the project that will see the creation of a park, Minister Forde said: “The idea is to clean because we believe that Barbados must be a clean place; it must be the cleanest place in the western hemisphere and that is the firm commitment of the Prime Minister . . .

“We are going to clean this country. At the same time, we are going to beautify; that is where the NCC and the tree planting project comes into play because we believe in not only cleaning but we have to keep Barbados beautiful.”

But DePeiza is describing the BLP action at this time as an insult to the intelligence of the electorate.

“The concern is about the optics: the use of state resources in the time of a political campaign is suspect. It also is an insult to the intelligence of the electorate that they have to wait until an election to get attention,” contended the DLP president.

“Our candidate [Floyd Reifer] has been on the ground one week and already is effective – his Facebook live got the Government to scramble into action at Flat Rock,” she added.

And the BLP campaign manager again strongly rebuffed DePeiza.

Sutherland contended that the two projects were on the cards long before the by-election was called.

“I don’t understand how it is an insult. It is part of Government’s initiative to put people back to work and green the environment. That is our mandate. We have been promulgating this mandate from the time we came into office. So I don’t know how it is an insult,” the minister declared.

“The Todds project was touted . . . the ground-breaking should have been two months ago, but because of a setback and the change of guard, the Throne Speech, everything was thrown off the schedule. So I don’t know how it could be an insult
when we are seeking to provide housing solutions for the people of this country,” he told Barbados TODAY.

“We have 360 workers from St George, from all over Barbados, all 30 constituencies, if we look at it in that way . . . 30 by 12, is 360 workers employed. And we didn’t wait until a campaign to be called to do that. So are we going to say our school monitors too, are a political ploy?” Sutherland asked.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb