Political Scientist urges Gov’t to deliver on commitments, calls for opposition voice

Political scientist Peter Wickham has chided the government for failing to launch a promised constitution review commission and/or an election review commission in its first 100 days in office.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley had promised that immediately after transitioning to a republic, the country would have embarked on a journey toward the creation of a new constitution that would feature extensive consultation with the people of Barbados.

However, nearly six months after the process was supposed to begin, not even the roadmap for the constitution review had been rolled out. Wickham warned that the one-year mark since the January 19 election was now on the horizon.

“If there is something that I am disappointed about over the last 100 days is that we have not launched a commission to look at constitutional review and we also have not had a commission to look at electoral review,” Wickham told Barbados TODAY.

“I would like to see two different commissions and I would like to see them start work soon, because I feel it is important, especially when you are reviewing the election, to review it as close as possible to the election date, which is the last one.

“As far as electoral reform is concerned, we’ve been talking about it. Prime Minister Mottley had been talking about constitutional review in the last government. She indicated that it would be a priority this time around and that we would get cracking, and as we approached the 100-day mark one would have thought that we actually would have had a conversation about these things already,” he added.

Wickham stressed that both the 2018 and 2022 General Election campaigns had exposed “inherent weaknesses” in the system that also needed to be addressed. Going into the last election, there were serious concerns about the exclusion of voters infected with COVID-19. In 2018, controversy also erupted over whether certain classes of residents who were not born in Barbados, should be allowed to vote.

“We acknowledged that the electoral office is a bit of a mess and it is essentially antiquated and it needs a lot of things done that would take us back to 1957, when the last meaningful changes were made,” said Wickham.

“To me there was an imperative that was identified and we need to move on it quickly,” the political scientist added.

In examining other aspects of the government’s 100-day performance, Wickham said there was evidence of continuity from the previous term.

He identified steps to recapitalise the heavily-depleted National Insurance Scheme, the first budget speech in three years, and the reopening of schools as positive social and economic developments.

“There was no surprise, there was no ‘wow’, and I think there was no wow because it is a maintenance agenda that we have seen,” said Wickham.

On the other hand, he expressed concern about developments at the Government Industrial School that have triggered two internal investigations in recent weeks.

“I am not necessarily ready to jump to conclusions regarding what the problem is and the suggestion that the problem could be parked in the government’s court. I don’t necessarily know that I support that idea. But I agree that it is unfortunate that within the first 100 days, this issue has come up again and again and has now resulted in a situation where the girls have escaped,” said Wickham.

The political analyst said a failed bid to include the Democratic Labour Party and an 18-year-old, Khaleel Kothdiwala, in the Senate, was a missed opportunity.

But he is more concerned about the fact that the period has been largely without an opposition voice in the country.

“I believe we are approaching the point in time when we need to ask Dr Ronnie Yearwood [DLP president] when he is going to appoint a shadow cabinet and when will he get to work in terms of speaking to national issues or alternatively, if that is not a priority of his and is he more concerned about the internal rebuilding,” said Wickham. kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb