All three St James constituencies remained with the Barbados Labour Party. Briefly, it appeared as though the Democratic Labour Party candidate for St James South, newcomer Dr Ronnie Yearwood was going to mount a challenge to incumbent Sandra Husbands, but it was not sustained in the latter counting.
St James South
Minutes after returning officer Wayne Taylor declared her the duly elected representative for St James South, Sandra Husbands said she was ready to continue the work she started, with jobs for constituents being a top priority.
Talking to reporters at Queen’s College where the votes for the constituency she first won in 2018 poll were counted, the Barbados Labour Party representative said she was “ecstatic” with the results, thanked the people for giving her another opportunity to continue serving them, and was “looking forward to getting back to work as quickly as possible”.
Husbands tallied 2 879 votes to secure victory over Dr Ronnie Yearwood of the Democratic Labour Party who amassed 1 633. Out of a total of 4 522 votes cast, ten were rejected.
St James Central
Incumbent Kerrie Symmonds romped to an easy victory in St James Central.
Symmonds, a lawyer and international trade specialist, won the poll with 2 421 votes, more than twice the combined total of his three rivals, led by Paul Gibson of the Democratic Labour Party (911 votes).
He defeated Gibson, a newcomer and pharmacist, in each of the 11 polling stations with the exception of one box, where Gibson had 75 votes compared with 71 for Symmonds.
The winner told the Nation the low turnout could have been the result of elderly people opting out due to concerns with the COVID-19 pandemic as well as voter apathy.
The other newcomers were independents, with Erskine Alleyne picking up 62 votes, 10 more than Joseph Jordan, who was returning for the second me.
St James North
Edmund Hinkson of the Barbados enjoyed an easy victory over the Democratic Labour Party’s Charles Worrell to be returned as Member of Parliament for St James North.
Hinkson garnered 2 536 votes to Worrell’s 608.
