Democratic Labour Party (DLP) member Dr Elvis Wickham says Barbadians are afraid to come out and show their support at the party’s meetings.
He said there was an air of fear enveloping the St James North constituency.
“It is interesting that in a democracy, as we claim to be here in Barbados, the level of fear and victimisation that people have in this country but persons have been expressing their support for Felicia,” he said of the DLP’s candidate, Felicia Dujon.
“That is something you have been hearing a lot from persons as we canvass the constituency – this fear and resentment. I have been paying close attention to politics since 1991 and I have not seen this level of fear before. I was told to be careful since I got involved in politics, that they are going to kill your business. That is stopping persons coming out to meetings to speak. They don’t want to be seen or identified with the Opposition. That is the level of fear,” Wickham told the audience while speaking on DLP TV online programme on Tuesday night.
He was part of the panel discussing the by-election under the theme Strengthening our democracy – Felicia is the one.
He also charged that the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) candidate, Chad Blackman could not properly represent the St James North constituency because he could not go against the Prime Minister.
“Here we have someone who has years of representing persons speaking out on their behalf and advocating for ordinary Barbadians. We saw not too long ago when a senator dared to speak out on behalf of the people of St James she was summarily dismissed forthwith. Voting for Mr Blackman guarantees that he will represent the interest of the Prime Minister and the Barbados Labour Party ahead of the interest of the people of St James North because loyalty more than anything else to the leader seems to be . . . . on that side,” he said.
He added: “We can count on Felicia that she has been doing for years to represent the people’s interest. I doubt very much that we can count on her opponent to do the same especially if it crosses hairs with the direction of the party and the leader.”
Wickham also slammed the BLP for its long tenure representing the constituency as he pointed to several areas of neglect.
“They have had 34 years representing that constituency. All of a sudden they realise the place dark and that roads need fixing and the community centre at Weston is an abject embarrassment. How could that exist the way it has for so long? Why wasn’t representation made on behalf of the people of Weston?” he asked.
