The upcoming General Election will be the litmus test for the people of St Lucy, who in six straight elections terms voted for the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), until May 2018 when the entire island voted red.
Incumbent Barbados Labour Party (BLP) candidate Peter Philips believes that in just over three years, he has been able to introduce constituents to a standard of representation unlike anything they had ever experienced.
However, DLP candidate and party president Verla De Peiza believes the result last time around was merely an outlier and that the people of St Lucy will be more than willing to return their support to the country’s second oldest active political institution.
In key communities across the constituency, it was clear that many pockets of unflinching support, particularly among older voters, still exist.
At Half Moon Fort, Ms G Rollins declared that she was a relative of De Peiza and would vote for her without question.
“If I go, I will be for her, that is the truth. Your family should come first. I don’t even know [Peter Phillips]. I’ve seen him in pictures, but personally, I never saw him,” she told Barbados TODAY.
The elderly woman also expressed frustration about the persistence of brown water coming through the taps, which to her, looks like beer.
“We are paying for water every month while you’re still drinking beer. It looks like beer, and when the [Barbados Water Authority] comes around with water, it contains so much chlorine, you could smell it when you uncork the bottle.
“I want the politicians to think and know that we are human beings like them,” she added.
At Crab Hill, St Lucy, one man said he is not particularly interested in politics, but that he would give Phillips his vote.
“From the time I could vote, I was a downright Barbados Labour Party supporter and I feel once he was able to take out Kellman, I feel he would take out her too,” said the man.
Margaret Hinds, also from Crab Hill, described De Peiza as “her girl” but was doubtful about her chances to win.
“I feel she may get beaten because of the way things have gone. St Lucy is a Democratic Labour Party constituency, but it didn’t work that way for a very long time. The BLP was getting too close to them,” she said.
At Harrises, a DLP stronghold in the constituency, Cam Bowen, a resident of the area, said there was very little tangible evidence of Phillips’ representation.
“I really haven’t seen anything in our area that we can shout about. It’s the same way as when the people went out. The road infrastructure is very disgusting and that is one of the main issues no matter which side you travel,” he said.
Others said they would simply vote Dems, because it was all they know.
“When the other candidates come into this village, we say ‘go and keep your meetings somewhere else’. You don’t have to come here. We were supporting the Democratic Labour Party for donkey years and we aren’t about to change,” said one elderly man in Harrises.
Another, Patterson Phillips added: “I was a DLP supporter for years, so it’s one person all the time. Verla came around and presented herself this afternoon and told me that she is going to represent Lucy. I am going to continue to give the DLP my support.”
At his campaign house in Checker Hall, St Lucy, Phillips declared that prior to his election “nothing” had been done. And, despite the economic challenges and the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, he believes important strides were made in the area of housing and roadworks
But he admitted that the persistence of brown water flowing through the taps due to aging mains still lingers. But he promised to tackle it once re-elected through a joint mains-laying and roadworks programme.
The incumbent also promised to tackle youth unemployment by providing training in a range of disciplines, for a demographic whose support or lack thereof will be critical.
“I see it as a litmus test. I certainly believe, based on my record, that St Lucy will again return to the Barbados Labour Party. After three and a half years, you have had a number of projects, people working and when you move through St Lucy, people are happy to be seeing things happening,” Phillips told Barbados TODAY.
“They are referring to the cleanup programmes, the improvement in the bus service, you are hearing about the housing and people felt at last represented and that things were happening for them.
“I do not fool people into believing that everything can happen for you all at the same time and in a short period. But people are seeing the effort and they have said ‘we believe that had there not been a COVID situation, we would have been much further’. And that is true, that is absolutely true,” he added.
But the perception of DePeiza and her supporters is that Phillips’ three and a half years in office yielded little to no representation at all. She expressed total dissatisfaction with the current MP’s response to water woes, the “deplorable” state of the road infrastructure and even the public transportation system.
“There is one bus that travels the whole of St Lucy at certain times of the day. I call it the scenic bus ride, but for those who have to do it on a daily basis, it really is a waste of time. It also does not serve some people in St Lucy… These are all ministries that the MP for St Lucy was a junior minister in and nothing has happened for the people of St Lucy,” De Peiza declared.
“The suffering of my people is obvious to me and it cannot continue. They have to have proper representation. They also have to have development, because that too is lacking in St Lucy. Where is the bank? Where is the library for the children to study? Where is the supermarket? Where do you go to just have relaxation and entertainment? If you look at the Glebe you will know that we already have a template for it. It is not that hard to do, it is about political will,” the DLP president added.
When asked for an assessment of constituents’ decision to depart from the Dems in 2018, she declared “The entire country was on a swing. St Lucy went with that tide, but we have precedent. This is not the first time that St Lucy has moved away from the Democratic Labour Party and back then, they came swiftly back home and I have no doubt that the result will be the same this time around.”
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb
