Put up or shut up!
That is the message Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has sent Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne as she categorically denied recent allegations of Government engaging in voter padding through the registration of foreign workers and students.
She has thrown down the gauntlet at the feet of Thorne, a former Barbados Labour Party member, to bring proof if he had any.
Mottley told the Sunday Sun last night that Barbados had an impeccable record as it related to voting and elections, adding that Thorne’s comments were not only baseless, but also dangerous.
Voter padding
At a Democratic Labour Party press conference last week, Thorne brought up voter padding for the second time, having first mentioned it while on his feet in the House of Assembly during his Reply to the 2025 Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposals.
“We are asking Barbadians to be wary of padding the voters list. We are asking Barbadians to be wary of bringing labour here, foreign labour and even students now we hear are being registered as Barbadians. We are suspicious that all of these initiatives are intended to make up ground for lost votes and that when the election comes the Government may find itself padding the voters list with people who do not ordinarily live here,” Thorne said at the press conference last Monday.
Mottley rubbished those claims.
“Twice in the last two weeks, Mr Thorne has alleged that this Government is engaged in padding the voters list by registering foreign labour and foreign students. Barbados has never been a country defined by recklessness or rumour.
“We have built our democracy on trust, transparency and strong institutions,” Mottley said, noting the country’s long-standing tradition of electoral integrity established with the introduction of universal suffrage 75 years ago, in 1950.
The Prime Minister labelled Thorne’s statements as an attack not only on the Government, but also on the Electoral and Boundaries Commission (EBC), an independent body critical to maintaining the legitimacy of the electoral process.
“The EBC has served this country with distinction across successive administrations,” Mottley noted, reaffirming the nonpartisan nature of the commission and the rigorous standards it upholds.
“The EBC is a constitutional body, whose members are nominated by both the Government and the Opposition. And to our certain knowledge, one of the two Opposition appointed members is extremely well known to him and has served on that commission for a very long time.
“We have a strong and fair electoral system governed by a strong independent
Electoral Boundaries Commission. We have never had to rely on any international observers in our electoral process.
We don’t have to fight to establish the legitimacy of our electoral results. This has been the product of careful, deliberate work over generations by both parties,” she added.
“These allegations are untrue and completely baseless.”
‘Bring evidence’ “If he has evidence, let him bring it. If he knows who has been registered illegally on the voters’ list, let him bring the facts,” she urged, insisting that any claims should be backed by concrete proof rather than speculation.
“If all he has are unproven suspicions, then do this country a favour: stop. Just stop, because this cannot be how we conduct public life in Barbados. When Mr Thorne is long gone from public life, the slurs on this country’s electoral system will remain”.
Mottley reminded the public that the right to vote was sacred.
“We must protect Barbados’ good name. Mr Thorne needs to stop the theatrics and stop trying to tear down Barbados just as he is doing to his own party which he has reduced to a pressure group,” she said.
“In simple language, the Leader of the Opposition must put up or shut up.”
Mottley said Barbados is a stable, serious democracy, adding that when things were thrown out without a factual basis and simply to secure political headlines, it hurts the country.
“This continuous attack on our institutions will hurt the country and by extension, Bajans. Our stability allows us to have the benefit of the doubt on so many fronts, including in our credit ratings and our cost of capital, in our attractiveness for investment for the creation of jobs for Bajans.
“When international reports are written about our country, they invariably start off by referring to our political stability and our strong institutions.
“So, let me say this as plainly as possible. Mr Thorne holds a serious constitutional office. If he has evidence, bring it. If he has names, bring them. If he knows who has been registered illegally on the voters’ list, bring the facts and let us deal with it.
“Bring the evidence of the foreign students that he says are being registered as Bajans. For sure, the foreign workers who are here do not have Bajan names so it will be easy for him to find them.”
(BA)
