Barbadians have become accustomed to bad governance, and leader of the United Progressive Party (UPP), Lynette Eastmond, is urging them to wake up and stop allowing themselves to be fooled.
She was one of the speakers yesterday at Westburn Plaza in Baxters Road, The City, as three political parties – the UPP, the Conservative Barbados Leadership Party and the New National Party – announced they had formed the People’s Coalition for Progress (PCP) to challenge the ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP).
“So here we are. Elections are now supposed to be on February 11. A snap election has been called before it is constitutionally due. Some people call that a blatant abuse of power, but you know what has happened? Barbadians have become accustomed to [it].
“I don’t care who says that they care, but they cannot care about you, the ordinary public of Barbados, if they continue to do this. Because it means that the term they spend in Parliament is actually shorter than it should be. Politicians in the past have respected this, but Barbados has gone so far away from where we were. Right now, we have no philosophy about anything; it just seems to be a situation where you grab what you want as fast as you can, and Barbadians say, well, that is politics. No, that’s not politics,” she said.
Eastmond said it was time for a fixed election date.
“What would be the problem with having a fixed date for elections? Other countries do it. But we have become so used to being abused that you just call a snap election, whoever is ready, is ready, and let the others do whatever they please.
“That’s not fair. I’m not saying it isn’t fair to the parties, I’m saying it’s not fair to the people of Barbados, who should have a clear opportunity to determine who they would vote for.”
Eastmond has unsuccessfully contested St Philip West for the BLP since the seat was created in 2003 until 2018, when she ran in The City under the UPP, and then in 2022, back in St Philip West as part of the coalition party Alliance Party for Progress, a union between the UPP and the People’s Party for Democracy and Development.
She said there might be those asking why she persisted having lost each time.
“You may even ask yourself, why does Lynette Eastmond continue to do this? Doesn’t she see that she cannot win a seat? But let me tell you the commitment that I made: I will not leave this earth and allow anybody to say that Lynette Eastmond did not try her best, and that is all we can do. All we can do is try our best on whatever platform is afforded to us,” she said.
