DLP to consider Senate seats following court ruling giving Upper Chamber the green light

The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) is now ready to review an offer of two seats in the Senate following a High Court judge’s ruling that allows the current administration to facilitate the opposition appointments.

Interim DLP president Steve Blackett said once the offer is formally made to the party, consideration would be given to accepting the offer and potentially choosing the senators.

“We stand in readiness as a party to review the offer,” Blackett told Barbados TODAY.

“I said this before that once the offer comes formally to the party that the organs would assemble at George Street and we would first consider the acceptance of the offer and once we get the nod of the Council of the party, we will put a process in place to set about identifying who those two senators would be”.

The Barbados Labour Party’s 30-0 sweep at the January 19 general polls for a second consecutive election left the main opposition DLP without either Opposition MPs or Senators and the House of Assembly without an Opposition Leader.

Consequently, Prime Minister Mia Mottley tabled constitutional amendments that would allow the party with the second-highest number of votes in an election, in this case the DLP, to nominate two opposition senators.

In late January, Blackett, relying on Section 75 of the Constitution and the DLP’s “legal brains”, declared that the PM had no authority to offer the seats as it was the President’s duty to appoint the two senators.

Former Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite then filed a motion in the High Court contending that the Senate, whose vote is required for the passage of constitutional amendments, was not properly constituted with only 18 of its 21 members appointed.

On Monday, Justice Cicely Chase ruled that the businesses of the Upper House can continue – a decision which Brathwaite, who served under the DLP administration from 2008-2018, intends to appeal.

But Blackett, who served as a Cabinet member alongside Brathwaite, stressed that the action taken by his political colleague was as a private citizen and not on behalf of the party.

“I am, first of all, not a lawyer. I am a politician and at all times I strive to get a political advantage for my political party as a politician,” said Blackett.

“If there is a political advantage on the table for the political party which I have the honour to lead as interim president, I will take advantage of that political opportunity. That is where I am at. I am not a constitutional lawyer, I am a politician and at all times I am striving to get a political advantage for my political party, the Democratic Labour Party.

“I said from the inception that as long as the offer comes to us cloaked in the legal garb, in the constitutional garb, that the party is willing to look at the offer and once we consider the offer to be properly offered, then we will address the process by which to honour the offer,” the former social care minister added.

Blackett said that the party is ready for a strong resurgence, revealing that internally, its members have been hard at work.

“You would have noticed over this weekend we initiated discussion on the 2022/2023 Estimates. A novel position that we have taken is that we will be responding tonight [Tuesday] at six o’clock to the Budget that was presented [Monday] by the Prime Minister,” he said.

“We are doing some other internal work which will soon be revealed, but we have not been sitting twiddling our thumbs in this interim period. We have been busy doing some foundational work and some informational work.”

Blackett said the party’s posture would no longer hinge on sentiment and speculation, but on evidence-based analysis that encompasses input from the wider society.

“We, as a party, have to widen the tent, widen the canopy and be more inclusive of Barbadians and help us to make the decisions that will help us to be successful,” he added.

On May 1, the DLP will hold an extraordinary conference to choose a new president, after which, the interim president will return to his substantive position as 1st vice president.

Verla DePeiza, who led the party into the last election, resigned shortly after the convincing defeat.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb