President of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Verla De Peiza says her party will again have to regroup and find a way to get Barbadians back on their side.
Her comments came in the early hours of Thursday, when it was clear the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) had again secured a resounding 30-0 win at the polls in Wednesday’s General Election.
De Peiza, who took over presidency of the mass-based party after a similar embarrassing scoreline in 2018, accepted defeat and congratulated the BLP administration, but said she remained concerned about the low voter turn-out.
The president suffered her third defeat at the polls, this time losing in St Lucy to the incumbent candidate Peter Phillips.
De Peiza made her concession speech at an almost empty George Street auditorium, the DLP headquarters in Belleville, St Michael, where the mood was expectedly subdued.
“The Democratic Labour Party will concede, as we must. Our only concern is that the turnout continues to be depressed, and I do believe we have to take a serious look at that going forward as to how we reclaim the confidence of our people in the process of democracy,” she told reporters when the BLP’s runaway victory was clear.
“As far as the party is concerned, we will regroup, not tonight, but sometime in the future, and will communicate with you what we are doing.”
De Peiza was not at the Daryll Jordan Secondary School in St Lucy on Wednesday night in the lead-up to the final results, but the writing was on the wall for her failure in the parish where she grew up.
Her fellow northerner, community practitioner Phillips, easily won back the seat. Supporters were celebrating even before he was officially declared the winner.
He finished with 2 693 votes compared to De Peiza’s 1 688. The third candidate, Wayne Griffith of the Alliance Party for Progress, earned 124 votes. (BA)
