By-election televised debate draws widespread reaction

University of the West Indies political scientist Dr Kristina Hinds today gave the political debate involving candidates for the St George North by-election a poor grade even as President of the Barbados Association of Journalists and Media Workers (BARJAM) Emmanuel Joseph expressed satisfaction with the outcome.

The debate was a major talking point Friday with several people voicing their disappointment, via social media, about its effectiveness.

Popular radio talk show Down to Brasstacks was also flooded with callers who criticised the debate.

Hinds described the debate as “not very helpful” for voters in St George North.

However,  Joseph admitted that though the face-off lacked excitement, the three candidates produced good content.

Barbados Labour Party (BLP) candidate Toni Moore, Grenville Phillips II of Solutions Barbados, and Alex Mitchell of the Barbados Free Party participated in the debate which lasted for one and a half hours.

The Democratic Labour Party (DLP), United Progressive Party (UPP) and the People’s Party for Democracy and Development (PdP) opted out.

Mitchell made several questionable statements during the debate, which resulted in him being frequently muted.

His actions led to the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) issuing a statement distancing itself from his comments.

“The Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation takes this opportunity to apologise for any untruthful, offensive and misguided comments that may have been broadcast during last night’s live St George North debate that was held at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre,” it said.

“The Corporation recognised that in the course of a by-election, a national political event, that commentary may not always conform to good taste and took precautions to avoid the besmirching of people’s reputations. If our efforts failed to contain all such offensive statements, we sincerely regret this as the views expressed do not in any way reflect the opinion of the Corporation.”

Dr Hinds told Barbados TODAY that as far as she was concerned, the debate was unproductive.

“I don’t think it was a good debate. It was entertaining but not for the reasons that we would want – not because it was a rich and fruitful debate; it was entertaining because elements of it made you laugh.

“I don’t think it was very helpful for people who have to go and vote, who were trying to make a decision on which candidate to vote for. I really don’t think it was a very productive exercise,” Dr Hinds said.

For his part, Joseph said while the controversial statements made were a disappointing element of the debate, he believed it was overall a success.

“That was the only unfortunate aspect of the debate but in terms of content, even he [Mitchell] made some substantial contributions. So, in terms of content I think that there was something to take away of value. In terms of the issues, I think the main issues were covered in terms of things that impact the lives of people,” he said.

“If you are looking at excitement in terms of what people would like to see in a debate, it didn’t have that excitement apart from what Alex Mitchell provided, which was excitement for the wrong reasons. So I think what happened too, maybe, was that excitement was absent generally in terms of heated exchanges because we told them beforehand to keep it orderly, so they probably were trying hard to keep it orderly and as decent as possible so maybe that was foremost in their minds.”

Joseph said while the absence of the DLP, UPP and PdP did not “hurt” the debate, he admitted their presence would have generated more interest.

“I don’t think it hurt it but it would have contributed to more interest and made it more intriguing but I don’t think it hurt it,” he said.

Meantime, Phillips lauded Joseph for his role as moderator following the decision of the two previously assigned moderators to pull out.

He said that development, along with the late notice by the UPP, DLP and PdP not to participate, hurt the debate.

“Had the UPP, DLP and PdP confirmed their absence at a reasonable time, CBC could have accommodated the three candidates at their Pine studios, for which they had full management and technical control for an unscripted debate.

“Had the professional moderators showed up, they could have managed the styles of each debater and forced us to debate each other. There are many lessons that can be learnt by all parties,” he said.

Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley declined to comment while efforts to reach the DLP’s president Verla De Peiza and UPP’s chairman Everton Holligan were unsuccessful.

(randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)