Former Senator Andre Worrell will be seeking to regain the constituency of St John as a Democratic Labour Party stronghold in the next general election due in 2023, he has declared to Barbados TODAY in an exclusive interview.
Worrell has been named as the challenger of the incumbent Barbados Labour Party Member of Parliament, Charles Griffith.
In a historic defeat in the last general elections, the DLP lost all 30 seats including St John which was briefly held by the BLP from 1956 to 1958.
Worrell shared his plans for the constituency which include a heavy focus on developing agriculture, infrastructure, housing and jobs. He said he won’t be drawn into bashing any political party but expressed confidence the odds are in his favour after canvassing the constituency.
He said: The response has been good I have been going around talking to people, this is my approach I am not bringing anything to force on people, I want to hear from them what is it they want.
“So I am trying to build that contact and relationship with the people because yes people would have said you elect MPs and then you don’t see them.”
When asked about his chances of regaining the seat for the DLP, Worrell said: “ I believe that I can because based on the response that I have been getting from persons they are ready to make that commitment. St John people are committed to the Democratic Labour Party and they are willing to work with the Democratic Labour Party and with me as the candidate.”
When quizzed about his community involvement as a senator in the previous administration and the seeming lack of development in the constituency, Worrell said “Yes, I was a senator from 2010 up until 2018 was not the MP nor was I a minister but wherever possible I would have advocated for the needs of the residents of St John.”
He defended the work of Prime Ministers Errol Barrow and David Thompson who represented the constituency from 1958 to 2010.
He said Errol Barrow’s premiership was a period of national development and instead blamed the 1994-2008 BLP administration for neglect of the rural parish.
Worrell declared: “There are a number of our parents and grandparents who were able to get a job within government in areas such as NCC which before was called parks and beaches or working in school meals and were able to rise to the level of Permanent Secretary,” Worrell said. “That is how Barrow would have done his part in the development of St John in terms of making sure that people were able to get the jobs that they needed in order to provide for their families.
“If we want to speak to the neglect of St John we also have to talk about the period of time in the development of the country when we thought the then Prime Minister Arthur identified St John as the poorest parish but yet still their resources were not spent in the constituency to benefit the people, he still left the polyclinic untouched for 14 years and then the administration that came in from 2008 had to finish.”
The DLP candidate said: “ I’m happy that Charles [Griffith] is able to get things done now but a lot of these road projects which they have started are actually projects which were left in the pipeline which had to be halted because the previous administration came in 2008 and faced the financial crisis and the access to resources were limited so a number of those projects had to be halted.”
But Worrell said that he didn’t want to spend a lot of the time talking about which government did better when it comes to the amenities that everyone should be getting regardless of who is in power.
He is of the view that the system needs to move past a model of opposition MPs not receiving resources to carry out infrastructural work in a constituency.
Worrell told Barbados TODAY: “Even though you are in opposition, the people who live in the constituency still pay taxes and every year when you have the estimates they should get a portion of that money to do the infrastructural work that is needed so that we vote on things like roads, housing and that money needs to be placed at the disposal of all 30 constituencies so that no one suffers because their MP is not a minister and not in Government.”
(kobiebroomes@barbadostoday.bb)
