BLP General Secretary dismisses talk of disunity, defends elections amid pandemic

The Barbados Labour Party’s (BLP) campaign is pushing back hard against claims that a seemingly hasty decision to call a general election is based on panic, disunity, or other negative factors.

Moments after all 30 BLP candidates paid their deposits ahead of nomination day on Monday, campaign manager, Dr Jerome Walcott declared that the party members all were united behind one leader.

Dr Walcott, who headed the Cabinet COVID-19 sub-committee, dismissed suggestions that citizens’ lives would be at risk because of the timing of the poll, pointing out that the new Omicron variant is considerably less virulent than the three previous strains.

Dozens of political supporters decked in red, lined the premises of the National Housing Corporation (NHC), as the party’s full slate of candidates arrived in coaches.

“First of all, in terms of the parody of us not being united, clearly, you can see that for yourself that we are totally united and we are not disputing at this stage and we are united behind one leader. We are not deciding who is to be president and who is to be a political leader. We are clear, so I discard that,” Walcott told reporters.

He was responding to rumours that discord within the senior ranks of the ruling administration may have prompted Prime Minister Mottley’s election call on Monday. Similar questions were also raised by Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley.

St James Central MP, Kerrie Symmonds, St James North MP, Edmund Hinkson and St Michael East MP, Trevor Prescod all told Barbados TODAY that the suggestions were unfounded.

Responding to allegations that the hosting of an election campaign at this stage of the pandemic could be detrimental to the health of voters, Dr Walcott declared that over some of the most deadly waves, people all over the world were afforded the opportunity to exercise their democratic right.

“In the great United States of America, in the great United Kingdom, in Canada, and in this region, we’ve had elections in Suriname, St Kitts, in St Lucia, in Trinidad, in Jamaica and in the Bahamas, and indeed here in Barbados, we had a by-election last October and all of these parties participated, and there was no talk about recklessness. They were out in their numbers,” said Dr Walcott.

As a result, the campaign manager explained that the Electoral and Boundaries Commission would seek World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines and the guidelines from other countries about the staging of elections.

He added that the emergence of vaccines has significantly improved the outlook, along with the rise of Omicron, which, according to him is mild. He noted this progression was much like the Spanish flu, which lasted just over two years and ‘petered out’ after four phases.

In fact, he suggested that the high number of positive cases could be considered a positive for both vaccinated and unvaccinated citizens, who could build up natural immunity from Omicron which, in his view, is akin to the common flu.

“The good thing about it is because of the rapidity with which it is multiplying, it allows those who have been vaccinated to get an additional, normal, natural immunity from the virus. Those who have not been vaccinated like some here, if they get Omicron, they will get natural immunity too and this natural immunity defends them against getting the delta variant subsequently,” said Dr Walcott.

“In other words, this virus, with its weak symptoms and often asymptomatic, nullifies the effects of the Delta virus. So it seems, in the long run, it could be a good thing and it could lead to the end of the COVID pandemic globally and we all hope and pray for that.

“You’re going to get an increase in numbers. It spreads rapidly, but I say it is not as virulent as the Delta or the Alpha that we have had to deal with and that is where we are and that is why we think that an election can be called. And we look forward not only to having elections but to getting people out and about and getting children back to school. That is what we want to do,” the campaign manager added.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb