DLP turns focus on choosing new leader

Declaring that an offer of two seats in the Senate is “dead” as far as the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) is concerned, interim president Steve Blackett said the party has moved on and is now focused on choosing a new leader, with four people already nominated for the position.

And as the political organisation prepares for another five-year stint with potentially no representation in either of the two houses of Parliament, Blackett said the organs of the party were on Tuesday scheduled to meet with the candidates from the last general elections.

“This [Tuesday] afternoon, the party’s organs are going to be meeting. It is going to be a private meeting that was initiated by the former candidates and we are going to hear from them and they have certainly delineated a path forward and they are seeking buy-in from the organs of the party and we are giving them a hearing,” he told Barbados TODAY.

“I know they have done some in-depth reviewing of what would have gone on over the election cycle and where we are at now, and we are willing to hear from them, because, like I said before, we are letting all ideas contend and they are very much part of the apparatus that is the Democratic Labour Party.

“At the end of it, if a press statement is to be issued, one will be issued. But we are moving forward, we are calling on all of the organs of the party along with the former candidates. We are letting all ideas contend on the path forward,” he added.

None of the DLP’s 30 candidates was able to secure a seat in the January 19 general elections. It was the second straight defeat of that magnitude, leaving the main opposition party unable to appoint either a Leader of the Opposition or two Opposition senators.

Two weeks ago, a constitutional amendment tabled by the current government to facilitate two seats in the Senate for the party with the second-highest number of votes in an election failed to attract support from Independent senators and did not go to a vote in the Upper House.

According to Blackett, the party is content with the President choosing the two remaining members in the Senate.

“As far as the Democratic Labour Party was concerned, an offer was made to us through the Constitution, section 75. That is now officially dead as far as they are concerned and the Democratic Labour Party has moved on,” he said.

“We in the Democratic Labour Party have returned to what the status quo was prior to the attempted amendment and it is now squarely in the province of the President. But as far as we are concerned, that amendment is a dead issue. We have moved on from there.”

Blackett said the matters discussed at Tuesday’s meeting would create a solid foundation for the party’s internal vote for a president to replace Verla DePeiza who stepped down after the election earlier this year.

Nominations for the new president end on Sunday, and according to Blackett, four members have so far been nominated. He declined to reveal the names of the three candidates until all 30 branches had nominated a person of their choice.

The interim president said prior to the May 1 elections, all of the ratified and confirmed presidential candidates would be given a platform to address the party’s rank and file directly.

“After Sunday, all of the candidates that were nominated will be formally written and once they respond in the affirmative, it is at that point when we will announce to the public who the nominated candidates are,” said Blackett.

“You have to understand that the branches can nominate someone who may not be interested in being president. So, once that process is finished next Sunday the 10th, the secretariat then will write formally to those candidates who have been nominated from among the 30 constituency branches. Once the person responds within the time limit that they are interested, then we will announce who are the true candidates. It is a long and drawn-out process but it is all within the party’s constitution,” he concluded.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb