Political scientist believes party would be ‘lucky’ to capture a few seats next election

One of this country’s leading political scientists, Dr George Belle is reporting promising signs of life from the Democratic Labour Party (DLP). But the former University of the West Indies (UWI) lecturer believes the organisation has a long way to go in presenting a viable opposition to the Mia Mottley administration.

In fact, he believes the once celebrated party could count itself lucky to capture “three or four” seats in Parliament at the next General Election because of “persisting flaws that are problematic”.

“I would say overall that there is an uphill struggle still in reconstruction. That seems to be more on its way now. I think that the present leader has contributed somewhat to that, but she is still carrying certain weaknesses in relation to her presence as a leader,” Dr Belle told Barbados TODAY.

Over the weekend, DLP president Verla DePeiza revealed a slate of 29 candidates that included more than a dozen new candidates, at a celebration to mark 60 years since the party first formed the government.

The academic however expressed very little faith in the party’s newest candidates, with the exception of Ryan Walters, who Belle believes could stand a chance against the sitting St Michael West BLP MP, Neil Rowe.

He has also said former DLP Government Minister Michael Lashley should stand a “good chance” when he takes on Dr Sonia Browne and warned that former Tourism Minister Richard Sealy should not be dismissed in St Michael South Central.

In fact, he noted that whilst DePeiza must come to grips with the issues that caused the constituency to fall out of favour with the DLP, she should also be mindful of an “underlying” challenge for leadership from Sealy.

“But in every case, that has to be achieved by victory. In other words, if you don’t have a seat, you’re not any leader with any gravitas. So that is where that problem would be present. Overall, as I am saying, we could come to the conclusion that the party has improved but it still has a long way to go,” said Belle.

Apart from failing to show clear strengthening of leadership, the former lecturer believes many of the new candidates will struggle to prove their worth as first timers in the next election, but that it would be a good opportunity to lay their foundations for a future in politics.

On the contrary, veteran political pollster Peter Wickham lambasted the party for returning some members of the ‘old guard’ to the election slate.

He believes the ‘dems’ will enter the next election hoping to receive support from voters who want an opposition at any cost.

“I don’t know about anybody else, but it did little to inspire confidence in me and quite frankly, I am really concerned about the plight of the Democratic Labour Party, because I am still convinced that three years on, the DLP does not understand what it needs to do to return itself to office and win a few seats,” said Wickham.

“They have returned at least three of the candidates from the last group and there are rumours that when they announce the final candidates, that they will return a fourth and I just think that that lays a platform for us having conversations that we had in 2018 all over again and it’s not going to help,” the pollster added.

In fact, he criticized the tone of last weekend’s event and DePeiza, for taking aim at the country’s debt, in circumstances where her party is responsible for pushing the current government to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund.

“I think on principle, it should have been an occasion that inspired confidence, but honestly, I found that the exercise was a dud and I think it did little to inspire confidence in anyone,” said the pollster.

kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb