Tomorrow, as Barbadians celebrate the 46th anniversary of political independence, the people of Antigua and Barbuda will be pondering the implications of two significant domestic political developments within the past fortnight.
Irrespective of political affiliation or persuasion, supporters of the governing Democratic Labour Party (DLP) and the parliamentary Opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) would not likely remain anxious about whether Prime Minister Freundel Stuart may announce before Christmas the date for a new general election that must take place within the first quarter of 2013.
Precedents exist both in Barbados and Jamaica for national elections to be announced in December, within weeks of Christmas. On December 5 last year, Jamaica’s then Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced a snap election for December 29. He ended up with a crushing two-to-one defeat of his Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) by the People’s National Party (41 seats to 22).
Prior to that, former Prime Minister Owen Arthur had announced on December 20, 2007, new parliamentary elections for January 15, 2008. His Labour Party suffered a two-to-one defeat by the DLP (20 seats to ten).
While Prime Minister Freundel Stuart could well stop the guessing game and announce the election date before Christmas, no serious analyst expects him to have the Barbadian electorate involved in a pre-Christmas poll.
A question of significance, however, is whether the Barbadian electorate may break with a historical post-Independence pattern in parliamentary politics to restrict the incumbent DLP to just its current first term. The Opposition BLP is talking as if such is likely while the DLP’s leader and first-time Prime Minister Stuart contemptuously dismisses it.
In Antigua and Barbuda, a general election for the 17-member elected House is not constitutionally due before April, 2014. But to follow the confrontational politics between Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer’s governing United Progressive Party (UPP) and the opposition Antigua Labour Party (ALP) one could form the impression that a snap poll may well be in the works for next year.
For one thing, Spencer is marketing a controversial “economic citizenship” programme through which his cash-strapped administration hopes to attract millions of dollars by making available Antigua and Barbuda passports to successful applicants, among them wealthy Chinese, Koreans and Japanese after less than a fortnight’s stay.
In the meanwhile, for the first time in its 66-year history, the opposition ALP no longer has a relative of Vere Bird as party leader.
Last weekend Lester Bird, who led the ALP for 18 years, ten of which he was also prime minister, was defeated by close ally and banker Gaston Browne. Both accepted the results and pledged cooperation to return the ALP to government. Prime Minister Spencer is not amused.
• Rickey Singh is a noted Caribbean journalist.
