Sealy: Early election a “selfish” move

Democratic Labour Party (DLP) candidate for St Michael South Central, Richard Sealy has branded as unnecessary and a “monumental act of selfishness” the decision by Prime Minister Mia Mottley to call an early election.

Barbadians will go to the polls on January 19 to elect a new government even though a new poll is not due for another 18 months.

“Truthfully speaking, we should not be engaging in an exercise like this. I said it elsewhere and I will say it again – it was a monumental act of selfishness to call an election like this during a pandemic,” he said, adding that the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) should have put the safety of citizens ahead of politics, especially in light of the latest predictions of a possible rise in cases due to the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

“We’re up to 500 cases a day. There’s modelling that is suggesting that we could see over 3,000. This is a serious, serious, serious matter and I’m not going to ease off that part, particularly since the Barbados Labour Party is saying it is safer with Mia.”

Sealy represented St Michael South Central for ten years before losing the 2018 vote to the incumbent Marsha Caddle. He charged that the BLP government has nothing new to present to the people, and called on Prime Minister Mottley to explain the real reason for calling an early poll.

“Listen carefully to the Prime Minister coming out of the nomination in St Michael North East. You have to have an election to unite the country because what did she say? Decisions need to be taken. Well, tell us.

“And I am going to use this opportunity, the first time I am on a platform this 2022 general election, to make a call to the Prime Minister. What is it you were referring to when you handed in your nomination papers at the St Michael Northeast nomination centre….? And why is it that you had to have a general election before you make those decisions?”

Arguing that taxpayers will likely foot the bill for this year’s election campaign, Sealy stressed that Mottley owed the public an explanation.

“General elections are not cheap. It’s an expensive undertaking… and I think it is only fair that the taxpayers of this country have been told something is happening that you have to go to the polls first, but we want to know what it is…. You got 29 members in parliament and the 30th was one of yours up to a few months ago, and you need unity? Where is the disunity? Come back and tell us,” he insisted.

DLP president and candidate for St Lucy, Verla De Peiza echoed Sealy’s assertion that the election was unnecessary in light of the current health crisis.

“How could it be that in the middle of a pandemic when you still have a state of emergency in place and your people are under a curfew with a variant that is the most virulent that we have suffered so far in this entire time, to the point where the predictions in the press conference [Wednesday] are more than sobering, they’re downright scary – and you must have known. But for reasons not spoken of in public, but whispered of in private, a general election that is unnecessary is called, putting our people’s lives in danger,” DePeiza said.

Despite his concerns over the timing of the election, Sealy remained confident that the DLP will be victorious in the polls.

He said the current slate of candidates is “determined to see that Barbados can get out of this hole and that Barbados can do better, and that we can take this country to another level”.
(BT)