At least one candidate representing one of the small political parties in the upcoming elections as well as one independent candidate feel slighted by their exclusion from the coalition Alliance Party for Progress (APP).
Member of the Barbados Sovereignty Party (BSP), Philip Catlyn, who will be contesting the St Thomas seat, and independent candidate for the City of Bridgetown, Fallon Best on Thursday spoke about being left out of the mix.
Catlyn, who will be going up against incumbent St Thomas MP Cynthia Forde of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP), Rolerick Hinds of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), and independent candidate Samuel Maynard, complained that his party was shunned by APP leader Bishop Joseph Atherley.
APP is the coalition party that was created when Atherley’s People’s Party for Democracy (PdP) and the United Progressive Party (UPP) joined forces after Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced the elections for January 19.
Best, who ran for Solutions Barbados in the 2018 general elections, expressed disappointment that he was not chosen to be on an APP ticket this time around.
“What is happening is that the members of the so-called coalition do not understand coalition politics,” he said as he accused the APP of acting “more like a decoy or controlled opposition”.
“They serve the very interest of the BLP that they are running against. Atherley should have held back and just endorse existing members. You [would] think Atherley would have endorsed me but he didn’t endorse me, he just stick somebody in to run against me. In coalition politics that makes absolutely no sense. If you don’t endorse me then [ask] what is the policy to see if I could change it or drop it,” added Best who will be competing against APP’s Marva Lashley-Todd, the DLP’s Kemar Stuart and the BLP’s Courie Lane.
Catlyn pledged that the BSP would involve people more in decision-making processes if given the chance to represent St Thomas residents.
“It is time for change. It is time to make a change. We must be sovereign and we must be heard and we must have representation that represents us, not giving our proxy to people who take care of their own business once they have our proxies for five years,” said Catlyn. “If we are given the mandate to govern the country the people have the final say.”
Catlyn and Best were speaking during the protest march by nurses through Bridgetown on Thursday.
They were accompanied by the BSP’s candidate in St Peter, Michael Thompson who said he would seek to correct a number of “errors in the system” and ensure that nurses get a better deal if he wins a seat in the House of Assembly.
Among his concerns are the challenges with water supply and sewage, transportation and poverty.
“The intent is to bring that to the forefront so the people of Barbados understand that St Peter, like St Joseph, like St Lucy, they are all suffering under a serious situation,” said Thompson, who indicated that his party has already been reaching out to people overseas to put systems in place to assist the less fortunate. “That is our mandate to ensure that we help our people.”
Thompson will compete against Colin Jordan of the BLP, the DLP’s Alwyn Babb and Lynroy Scantlebury of the New Barbados Kingdom Alliance for the St Peter seat in the upcoming polls. (MM)
