Home town candidate wants to represent The City in Parliament

The newly-formed Alliance Party for Progress (APP) officially introduced its Bridgetown representative to City constituents on Wednesday seeking to drum up support over the coming days.

First-timer Marva Lashley-Todd kicked off her canvassing in the Orleans, the community in which she has been residing for the past eight years.

Lashely-Todd, a Sales Manager at a popular bakery, complained of flooding and listed this as one of the major issues she planned to tackle if elected.

“This area has been represented by the DLP [Democratic Labour Party] and the BLP [Barbados Labour Party] for years and nothing has been done. All of the roads have been dug up and nothing has been done. These are concerns of the people,” she said.

Asking constituents in the City to give her a chance to prove her worth and help uplift them, Lashley-Todd pledged to help to change the perception people have about people who live in inner-city communities.

She also pledged to help create job opportunities and improve living conditions and housing for those living in and around the City.

“Even in terms of the farmers, they need more land to employ more people and also to employ themselves. These are all issues the people have and I believe that with a change for the APP we can definitely make a difference,” said Lashley, who describes herself as a down-to-earth person.

“The young people need a change . . . I assure them I am not like the rest and some of them can see for themselves,” she told reporters.

During the walkthrough, some residents in the Orleans complained that their biggest concern was a lack of job opportunity.

Meanwhile, Leader of the APP Bishop Joseph Atherley defended his party’s decision not to put up election posters, saying it was more important that the people saw the APP representatives instead.

“Don’t mind the pretty posters, we have the money for all these stuff but what we do is that we have a heart for the people so you will see us more than you will see posters. The rest can deal with posters we will deal with the people,” he said.

He further shot down any idea of the APP engaging in fanfare and “frills and frolics” during the short election season, insisting that what was more important was operating with integrity, being seen by the people and having serious discussions with them.

On January 19, Lashley-Todd will go up against Corey Lane for the BLP, Kemar Stuart for the DLP and Fallon Best who has entered the ring as an independent this time around.

Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic of the BLP won the May 2018 election having come up against then United Progress Party leader Lynette Eastmond, then Solutions Barbados candidate Fallon Best, DLP representative Henderson Williams and Natalie Harewood who contested as an independent. marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb