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”.
Mottley, a former attorney general of Barbados, called on the private sector, the labor movement, civil society, media organizations to think about the future direction of the country.
According to Mottley, it was also the responsibility of the opposition party to respond to the concerns of well wishers, and tens of thousands of Barbadians who have already started to sign (a petition calling for removal of Sinckler) who last week survived a motion of no confidence in the country’s parliament.
Mottley told the three-day Barbados Labor Party conference that the petition was an indication that a desire for change.
“Bajans have told us in their tens of thousands in the last week or two that they are prepared to stand up for love of country. I ask you to ready yourself, because we will be ready whenever the time comes, not because we want to be the government, but because this country needs people ready for any eventuality to conduct a restoration,” she added. -(CMC)