A new political party is making the late push to contest the 2018 General Election under an old name.
The Progressive Conservative Party (PCP) of Barbados publicly made its entry into the election with a small advertisement for serious candidates in the last SUNDAY SUN. The name was last used in the December 6, 1956 General Election.
Leader Rodney Nurse told the MIDWEEK NATION the party was formed last year and while it had 12 candidates on board, it was looking to field a full slate whenever elections were called.
“We want to fill the void people are feeling of emptiness in the development in the country,” he said during an interview . . . . People want jobs, they want to be sure they can improve themselves.
“We have an agenda and we also have a pledge . . . that will be expounded on our platform concerning what we want to do for the good of the people,” he added.
Nurse said many of the people who initially committed to being candidates got “cold feet”.
This will not be his first foray into politics, as he ran for the David Comissiong-led People’s Empowerment Party in the January 2008 elections in Christ Church East against Barbados Labour Party candidate and MP Reginald Farley, Democratic Labour Party candidate Dr Denis Lowe and Independent Ricardo Gibson.
Nurse did not fare too well then, garnering only 17 votes compared to Gibson’s 64, Farley’s 2 184 and eventual winner Lowe’s 3 135.
However, the PCP name carried a much more successful history. It had its beginnings in 1941 as local conservatives created the Conservative Electors Association and later changed their name to the PCP in 1956, when they amassed 21 per cent of the total 98 624 votes in that General Election, with three of their 13 candidates winning seats.
Ernest Mottley, grandfather of BLP leader Mia Mottley, won Bridgetown; Herbert Dowdling took St George and Fred Goddard secured Christ Church for the PCP in those elections. (AD)
