The newly retired leader of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) has voiced deep concerns surrounding Thursday’s presidential elections and has called for a comprehensive investigation.
Former acting general secretary Delcia Burke said on Friday the administration of the union ought to be worried that only about 600 members voted for a new president and executive in an organization boasting more than 7 000 people.
Burke told Barbados TODAY this was the lowest ever turnout for an internal election she has witnessed in 34 years in the trade union movement.
She said while she has no issue with Kimberley Agard winning the presidency with 393 votes to her only challenger Fabian Jones’ 183, the triumph cannot be a mandate for the new executive.
“My concern pertains to the very small number of persons that voted,” she said. “I know sometimes people don’t come out to vote, but I do not remember since I was working at NUPW that small number of persons voting. I think that is a cause for concern more so than anything else.
“The first thing the union needs to do is to find out the reason for persons not coming out to vote and what they are going to do to correct that problem so that by next election you would have more people coming out and voting.
“I have a difficulty with an organization that has over 7 000 members and only probably 600 people coming out. It is cause for concern because the majority of members did not make the decision. They had the opportunity to, but they did not make the decision. The majority that voted, voted for the person that eventually won.”
Burke said while she has heard various reasons being bandied about, she has not done any serious analysis of her own and therefore an in-depth appraisal is required by the leadership.
“There needs to be a serious post-mortem about that election to find out why persons are so disenchanted that they did not come out,” Burke told Barbados TODAY.
She also called for an investigation into ex-president Akanni McDowall’s allegations of political interference and claims of a lack of transparency in the election process.
Burke said even though she worked with a ballot box and did not observe “anything unusual happening,” she strongly recommends a probe into the claims of McDowall and Jones.
She said: “The union staff usually deals with the running of the election and I am not aware that the union staff gets involved in anything that would cause concern…but Jones said he had concerns; Akanni said he had concerns. So I think that when two or three people say so, then they might probably be worth investigating.”
Moments after Agard scored a resounding victory, Jones questioned the eligibility of the voting process. He charged that there was a lack of transparency in the election and suggested that a certain candidate had an unfair advantage, with several associates participating in the process.
“I don’t feel a sense of confidence in this process anymore,” said Jones. “There is what I consider to be an unassailable lead and this is not just about not doing as well as I thought. With a process that has been called into question several times, it has caused the integrity of this election into question. I believe that with all that has happened, I believe that some adjustments should have been made to the process.”
While calling for a review of the electoral process, Jones also recommended a do-over.
But acting general secretary Wayne Walrond, when questioned about the legitimacy of the electoral process, maintained that there was no evidence to support Jones’ claims. But he said the NUPW would investigate the allegations once proof was provided.
A week ago, McDowall told a press conference he was withdrawing from the presidential race citing political interference in the process.
He said it had been brought to his attention that highly placed union members are involved in an elaborate plan to ensure the outcome of the election.
(emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)
