The ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP) is stoutly defending the decision to hold the General Election this month, amidst mounting criticism from opposition forces that the timing was ill-conceived given that the COVID-19 pandemic rages on.
Even as the country learnt on Thursday of the first case of the highly transmissible Omicron variant being in Barbados, BLP campaign manager The Most Honourable Dr Jerome Walcott was adamant that the elections can be conducted safely.
Flanked by the BLP candidates, including Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, who had just completed the process of paying their $250 deposits in the VAT Office on Country Road, St Michael, Walcott said that throughout the pandemic elections had been successfully conducted regionally and internationally.
He also pointed to the St George North by-election in November 2020, arguing such polls were contested without murmur from the opposition parties, and he was therefore baffled by the concerns being raised this time around. He noted that with 65 per cent of the population now vaccinated, conditions were much better for an election than a year ago. (CLM)
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