DLP, in call for change, to announce second batch of candidates

The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) has launched a campaign to oust the Mia Mottley administration, urging Barbadians to seek change ahead of the next general election. 

With the DLP set to unveil new candidates, DLP leader Ralph Thorne has called for a shift in governance, criticising the administration’s policies and Mottley’s leadership style.

Declaring that the DLP is ready to take back the reins again, Thorne said in an online address on Monday that the DLP is also set to name new candidates shortly to supplement the 15 already named to contest the next general election for seats in the 30-member House of Assembly. Thorne, who crossed the floor from the BLP last year, is the sole representative for the DLP in the House. The general election is constitutionally due in 2027.

Thorne said: “We are going to be naming, for the sake of Barbadians, other candidates very shortly. We are serious. This Democratic Labour Party is coming to you, the people, with the offer of change, and the offer of fundamental change. This place has changed too much; and if Barbadians are interested in the lives and futures of their youngest children, if they maintain that interest, you cannot, similarly, be interested in keeping this Barbados Labour Party in office. They have to go.”

As part of its lead-up to the coming elections, the DLP will be taking to the streets on Saturday for a political march aimed at canvassing for its cause. Dubbed the Love Barbados March, it starts at Folkstone, St James, and concludes in Holetown, a half-mile south.

Thorne said: “All of the evidence accumulates against them in support of our charge, that they must go; and we are asking Barbadians to be wary of padding the voters’ list; we are asking Barbadians to be wary of bringing foreign labour here; even students, we hear, are being registered as Barbadians. We are suspicious that all of these initiatives are intended to make up ground for lost votes; and that, when the election comes, the government may find itself padding the voters’ list with people who do not ordinarily live here.”

The DLP political leader pleaded with the country to continue to secure the future of the youth by joining “your efforts in removing this ‘illegitimate’ government from office.”

Surrounded by his team of prospective candidates, Thorne’s message to the government is that Barbadians no longer trust this administration, pointing to Prime Minister Mottley’s leadership style. He raised questions related to the operations of the Home Ownership Providing Energy (HOPE) housing project and the vesting of land at Jemmotts Lane, St Michael, for the construction of a complex to be owned by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).

“We in the Democratic Labour Party have assembled a team of good, young, moralistic, virtuous, and bright people. We have assembled, and are continuing to assemble, a virtuous, moralistic, and worthy team. We are not perfect. We are not paragons of virtue,” he acknowledged.

Thorne said his party had also shown a readiness to run the country again when he shared with Parliament during his budget reply a number of proposals Barbadians should consider in deciding to return the DLP to high office.

“We are showing a readiness to replace a government that is incompetent… a government that does not understand its constitutional power; a government that does not understand that it does not sit in supervision over officials of state; a government that has failed miserably to reduce the cost of living. The cost of living is pauperising a lot of Barbadians,” the MP for Christ Church South declared. (EJ)