Charles Griffith, the Barbados Labour Party candidate for St John, is confident his record could stand the test against Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne.
While at his Clifton Hall, St John constituency office yesterday, Griffith said the people of St John were not easily fooled.
“I feel absolutely no pressure. The truth is that I am not going to be complacent. I know that there is still work to be done, but you can’t just parachute into St John and believe that everything is well because you are representing the Democratic Labour Party.
“I think the majority, if not all, of the constituents have realised over a period of time that to just turn up in St John and say I am representing [cannot work]. My record speaks for itself in terms of the work done in the constituency, and for an individual to abandon people and then turn up in a different constituency and believe that all is well, I believe that the people of St John will speak to him in a definitive way on Election Day,” he said.
In defending his record, Griffith, who won the St John seat in the 2018 and 2022 General Elections, said he had done work both as an MP and a minister, addressing the “three-headed monster” of water, housing/land and employment. He said he had managed to get several roads fixed, which had not been repaired in decades; rectified water issues; replaced more than 30 pit toilets with waterborne toilets; secured jobs for many of his constituents and was close to turning Poole Woods into a national park.
The Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment, also spoke about the controversial HOPE housing project at Poole, which had stalled. Currently, the area is being cleared of the grass.
“The clearing is two-fold; it is possible that a restart is coming, but the residents in Poole had some issues with cow itch, and I had asked that some of the area be cleared. This is the first step in terms of assisting those residents with the problem they have with cow itch at that location.
“In terms of the restart, I know that the government is doing everything through the Ministry of Housing to ensure that the problems that we face at the HOPE project will be rectified. There are 201 houses at that particular location, so I am really looking forward to it [being completed],” he said.
Griffith appealed to the people of St John to stay the course, adding: “This time more than ever, home drums must beat first because we have seen the work being done under my stewardship, and I am just asking for that third term now to complete a lot of the roadworks, a lot of the other infrastructure projects that are happening within this constituency.”
(CA)
