Politics
Barbados: Opposition leader Mia Mottley to supporters – prepare for general election
Mia Mottley – Head of opposition Barbados Labor Party. PHOTO/File
The main opposition Barbados Labor Party (BLP) Sunday put its supporters on standby for a general election less than a seven months after it lost the poll to the ruling Democratic Labor Party (DLP) by a slender two-seat margin.
Addressing the party’s 75th Annual Conference, Barbados Labor Party Leader Mia Mottley asked supporters “Does this country have four years, or is this really the government that has four years and not the country?,” she asked.
The Democratic Labor Party won 16 of the 30 seats in the February general election and since then the Freundel Stuart administration has acknowledged a stagnant economy.
Mottley, who took over the leadership of the opposition party after former prime minister Owen Arthur suffered another electoral defeat in February, said that the Barbados Labor Party was not prepared to wait for the next general election, constitutionally due in 2018 to effect changes to governance of the country.
“I’m saying to you however, prepare yourself for a rescue mission. We are not going to draw arms. We will not crack any heads. But as sure as night follows day, rapid decline in this our fair land cannot continue something will have to give,” she said.
“A change of government is non-negotiable to the people of Barbados who believe that better cannot happen under this Democratic Labor Party.
“A positive meaningful change will not come about with Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, Finance Minister Chris Sinckler, or any of them, so we have to change them”.
