Trinidad and Tobago Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath Friday said that the ruling United National Congress (UNC) is playing no role in the February 11 general elections in Barbados.
His comments follow statements by the Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley that the leader of the main opposition Democratic Labour Party (DLP), Ralph Thorne had appeared on the state-owned Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT) indicating that “yellow is the code” a reference to the UNC campaign slogan during the April 28 general election last year.
“I tell you yellow is the curse about here,” Mottley told supporters of her ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP) which is seeking an unprecedented third consecutive clean sweep of the 30 member Parliament.
“And what is that really a code for? Is it a code for campaign financing? Is it a code for who is supporting your party financially , because of that is the case the (former prime minister) Errol Walton barrow should now be rolling in a watery grave to believe that anybody leading the Democratic Labour Party could want to make that party subsidiary of another political entity in the Caribbean.”
Mottley said that Barrow also stood “should to shoulder with the late Trinidad and Tobago prime minister Dr. Eric Williams and that over the years, other Barbadian leaders had done the same with regards to their Trinidad and Tobago counterparts.
“I have stood shoulder to shoulder with (former prime minister ) Dr. Keith Rowley and the same Kamla,” she said in reference to the incumbent Trinidad and Tobago Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar.
Mottley said the labour parties would not be “subservient” to any of the parties in Trinidad and Tobago, dismissing also that her ruling BLP had been taking advice from the ruling Jamaica Labour Party.
“First of all, anybody who knows anything about s knows our sister party in Jamaica is the People’s National Party and even though they are not in government we are not fair weather friends,” she said, adding she has been to Jamaica on numerous occasions addressing the PNP conventions.
But Padarath speaking to reporters outside the Parliament building here, sought to distance the UNC from any involvement in the campaign for next Wednesday’s general election in the sister Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country.
“I would want to issue caution to our Caribbean colleagues with respect to using that sort of inference. The United national Congress we have said both publicly and privately that we do not interfere in the elections of any other sovereign nation and we hold true to that.
“Obviously though, many of our party colours across the Caribbean and the world are quite similar. We don’t have any control or jurisdiction over those things. So that I would in the silly season in Barbados that those inferences are not made because we really and truly do not have any horse in the race there.”
The colour of the DLP is blue.
Padarath said that the UNC government will respect the “will of the people of Barbados and therefore the outcome of the elections will be respected by the government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago”.
Asked whether the Barbadian electorate would see the main social media influencers and entertainers of the UNC on stage in Barbads as had been the case in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and St. Lucia, Padarath replied “we know that (Yellow is the code) is quite a catchy song but most of the persons you have spoken about…they all came from the entertainment fraternity before entering the political stage…
“They have every right to perform if they are hired so to do. But they do not speak or sing on behalf of the United National Congress in support of one political party over another in a sovereign nation”.
Padarath said e had a message for Prime Minister Mottley. “Let not yur heart be troubled Honourable Prime Minister, the will of the people in Barbados I am almost certain wll be done and we respect the democratic process because Barbados is a sovereign nation.
“We have no intention of interfering in Barbados elections,” he added. (CMC)
