The 16-14 general election outcome was a near perfect result. The perfect result would have been 15-15.
I know; most of you are going to say that the result is almost a stalemate: the majority party won’t be able to govern effectively.
Well, let’s consider some of the advantages of the actual result.
The Cabinet of the governing party will not be able to enforce its will upon the Parliament without taking careful account of the views of other members of the House of Assembly and of the public at large.
To start with, this will include its own back-benchers – if there are any. Don’t forget that the last bloated Cabinet of 21 comprised 16 elected members of the Parliament. So the Government might be forced to reduce the size of the Cabinet, which would be a good thing.
And the majority party also has to appoint a Speaker of the House, thus reducing its majority to one. So we might indeed see a governing party in the House consisting entirely of a front bench!
Both the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) and the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) will also have to pay careful attention to the threat of members crossing the floor. Some politicians are notoriously malleable. The election is over, but the real politicking now begins. So look for fun and games.
Mr Freundel Stuart himself will not be immune from challenge within his own party, even though he grew in stature by leaps and bounds in the past three weeks.
This was an election that was unique in the history of Barbados. For the first time the leaders of both parties were perceived as a drag on their parties.
Prime ministers are notoriously subject to second-term arrogance. Mr Stuart will be blessedly curbed by the constraints of the numbers that he faces.
As far as the Opposition BLP is concerned, it too will have to tread carefully. Since Mr Owen Arthur failed to lead the party to victory, it is likely that the rivalry for leadership between him and Miss Mia Mottley will surface again, if not immediately, at some stage in the life of this Parliament.
I suspect that Mr Arthur may very well want to call it a day and resign from Parliament, but this would lead to a by-election in St Peter that the DLP would almost certainly win. This fact may give Mr Arthur some leverage.
In any event, there is no way that anyone, not even the male conspirators who stabbed her in the back last time, can stop Miss Mottley from eventually assuming leadership of the BLP.
One must also celebrate the arrival of bright new talent in the Parliament: Santia Bradshaw, Kerrie Symmonds and the others. It’s a pity some of the older members did not lose their seats and Mrs Irene Sandiford-Garner did not win hers.
Now, of course, some may fear that a Parliament that is so evenly divided may make it impossible for the majority party to govern, especially in these times of economic woe when we need visionary leadership to drive us forward to prosperity.
Ironically, this semi-stalemate may prove to be the basis for creating new forms of governance in Barbados. In any event, the governing party will be forced to engage in greater consultation with all members of Parliament and the public.
This creates an opening for the two other Social Partners, the private sector and the trade union movement, to reassert themselves within an organization that most people recognize to be overly formal and lacking in substance.
One action I hope the Government will take early is to rescind the licence of CBC Channel 8. Let them keep Multi-Choice TV, which they administer quite well. But their coverage of the election night and the morning after was criminally negligent.
Finally, I’ve decided to call it a day, so this is my last column. I thank you readers and the staff of THE NATION newspaper for the opportunity. I enjoyed the journey.
• Peter Laurie is a retired diplomat and commentator on social issues. Emailprf.com
