Pundits weigh law to prevent crossing floor of Parliament

Two political scientists support the introduction of a law to force a by-election if a parliamentarian crosses the floor but have acknowledged it may be impractical given Barbados’ political reality.

Pollster Peter Wickham and political scientist Dr Kristina Hinds, in separate interviews with Barbados TODAY, weighed in on the debate on the issue which resurfaced after Barbados Labour Party (BLP) parliamentarian Ralph Thorne crossed the floor and was appointed Opposition Leader.

Currently, there is no law or provision in the Constitution preventing Members of Parliament from leaving one party and joining another or choosing to become an independent member. Under legislation to prevent crossing between government and the opposition benches, a defecting MP’s seat would be declared vacant, triggering a by-election

“I understand the reason why someone would want a by-election because in Barbados, there are a lot of people that vote for a political party, they’re not necessarily voting for the individual candidates,” said Dr Hinds, who heads the Department of Government, Sociology, Social Work and Psychology at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus.

“If you cross the floor, they may feel somewhat betrayed because they voted on the basis of the party. On the other hand, our system is not one in which we vote for a party; technically you vote for the candidates. So the argument could stand that this is a candidate you voted for.”

Dr Hinds, who served as an independent senator before Thorne’s selection of his own two senators resulted in her removal, spoke of the benefits of a by-election in a situation where a person switches political allegiance.

“…. You get some verification that the people in your constituency still want you as a member of parliament. The drawback is if you leave a strong political party, people may vote for the party and you may lose your seat. So it really requires the individual to be strong and popular in the constituency in order to hold onto the seat. For me, in an ideal world, a by-election would probably be the better way to go. But considering the nature of our politics in Barbados, I think that most by-elections in these cases will cause the member of parliament to lose their seats.”

Wickham, the director of the Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES), agreed the legislation should exist although it went against the fabric of the island’s political culture.

Noting that lawmakers in Trinidad and Tobago passed legislation to prevent crossing the floor, Wickham told Barbados TODAY: “It’s a situation where, on principle, I agree that you should not be able to get elected on one party and then just cross. In practice, however, it is extremely difficult to manage.

“Looking at the history of Trinidad and Tobago . . . a whole slew of people have left the party and crossed the floor. So even if we were able to pass legislation, there’s the challenge where it just does not work in practice; that would be the experience that Trinidad and Tobago had we would want to learn from.”

Wickham added that the main challenge with the Trinidadian legislation was that it prevented a parliamentarian from either associating or dissociating as they saw fit. Stressing the constitutionally protected right to associate and disassociate, he said the law took away politicians’ rights because they were high-level officials.

“The reality is that while I understand where people are coming from, the practicality of it is very, very hard to do,” he said. “I wouldn’t bother to waste my time doing it . . . . It is one of the peculiarities of the system that we have and I think we have to live with it.”

Veteran political scientist Dr George Belle stressed that under Barbados’ first-past-the-post electoral system, voters chose a candidate and a distinction must be made between a candidate and a party agent.

“Under the particular system that we have, there’s a distinction between a representative and a person who is in Parliament because he’s an agent of a party. So you’re a representative of the people in Parliament, you’re not an agent of a party. There are some political systems where you are an agent of the party and you’re going to Parliament to represent the party. But if you’re going to Parliament to represent the constituency as an individual, you have the right to do a number of things that could be contradictory. So, until that is changed, the argument about a person not having the right to cross is thrown out.”

However, Belle accepted that the discussion on crossing the floor must also bear the political reality in mind, noting that many politicians could not win their seats without being members of a particular party.

As he took the oath of office to become opposition leader on Monday, Thorne appeared to signal a recognition of that reality when asked by journalists if he would consider returning to the fold of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) under which he ran in two general elections.

“If I want to secure a future in the politics of this country, if I want the people of this country to take me seriously, I think I should associate myself with a party,” he told journalists. “I want to do my work within the safe confines of a political party. I want to do that. So I’m not going to come here and dance around the issue. I do want to do my work within the safe confines of a party.”

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb