Wickham: Floor-crossing law not a priority, should form part of wider reform

Pollster Peter Wickham has cautioned that proposed floor-crossing legislation should not be rushed or treated as an immediate priority for the Mia Mottley administration, insisting that any such move must be part of a broader constitutional reform effort rather than a stand-alone measure.

In an extensive post-election interview with Barbados TODAY, Wickham also suggested anti-defection legislation would ultimately prove ineffective, as he pointed to instances across the Caribbean where parliamentarians worked around prohibitions against crossing the floor.

The issue has gained renewed attention following Prime Minister Mottley’s clean-sweep election victory last week and her stated intention to prioritise legislation to curb floor-hopping.

He argued that while the prime minister appeared to have both a personal and political interest – particularly after the Ralph Thorne episode in which the backbencher claimed the sole opposition seat – the issue did not automatically merit becoming urgent.

Wickham said: “People have been talking a lot about it, whether they like it and don’t like it. She seems to like it and people seem to think that she feels it’s a priority. I’m clear in my mind that while she likes it, it’s not a priority necessarily because it has to come as a package of constitutional provisions.

“So we are at the issue of looking at crossing the floor legislation, which is a complex issue,” Wickham said.

Prime Minister Mottley was sworn in last Thursday at State House, a day after the Barbados Labour Party captured all 30 seats in Wednesday’s general election for an unprecedented third time. She has since revealed that her parliamentary colleagues had already agreed that floor-crossing legislation would be prioritised in the new session.

Following the party’s 2018 election victory, Bishop Joseph Atherley, then St Michael West MP, left the BLP backbench to form the People’s Party for Democracy and Development, becoming Leader of the Opposition. Two years ago, Christ Church South MP Thorne crossed the floor to the Democratic Labour Party, later becoming opposition leader and political leader of the DLP.

But Wickham cautioned against public assumptions about what anti-defection legislation would actually achieve.

“People don’t realise that crossing of the floor legislation does not prevent the MP from voting against the party,” he said, stressing that opportunities for free or conscience votes would remain intact. “There’s no attempt to say to them how they can vote.”

Drawing on regional examples, Wickham said such laws have historically had limited and narrow effects. He cited Trinidad and Tobago’s experience in the 1980s, noting that breakaway MPs were able to organise and oppose the government but were blocked from displacing the official opposition leadership.

“They could not remove the PNM from being opposition leaders simply because of the crossing of the floor legislation,” he said.

He also referred to Guyana to underline that courts have consistently upheld MPs’ right to vote independently once elected.

“The Constitution understands that even though the party is the determinant as to who sits in Parliament, once those persons sit in Parliament they vote on the basis of their own conscience,” Wickham said, adding that Barbados would face a similar reality.

According to Wickham, the most tangible effect of any anti-defection law would be procedural rather than transformative.

“If you attempt to form an opposition party and you want to take over the leadership of the opposition, you have to return to the polls. I think that that for a lot of people is enough,” he said.

The political scientist identified the potential constitutional recognition of political parties as the most significant outcome of the debate, describing it as the “silver lining”. 

He said: “If you recognise the elephant in the room, you can probably better engage it. And I think we need to recognise political parties so that we can regulate them, regulate the financing and whatnot. So you make them more accountable by recognising them.”

Despite this, Wickham remained sceptical about the practical effectiveness of anti-defection laws, also pointing to Antigua and Barbuda, where such legislation exists but defections have still occurred.

“In practice it doesn’t work, so then why bother?” he asked, adding that even supporters appear to accept its limitations. “You believe the inability to stop the person from becoming opposition leader is enough, and that’s all you really want to achieve.”

He said this scepticism also explained why previous constitutional commissions in Barbados stopped short of recommending such reforms. The latest commission under retired justice Christopher Blackman did not agree with the idea “because people are uncomfortable with the idea of telling a Member of Parliament how we ought to vote”, Wickham said. 

Since Barbados achieved Independence in 1966, the Constitution of Barbados has not officially recognised political parties, and under the Representation of the People Act, voters chose individuals as Members of Parliament for their respective constituencies.