Hopefully going forward we will see more professionals (and not just lawyers and doctors) entering politics. Bajan voters are rightfully fed up with all the corruption attributed to lawyers who now make up the majority of politicians in Bim. Professionals from other disciplines entering the political arena would be a welcome relief for the weary taxpayers.

Freedom of Information will let us all know who have integrity, and not the other way around.
The C.U.P and the and the BFP have a plan to remove the taxes from the Bajans .
We need truth not lies to fix what is wrong.
We dont need no long talk

If it can be demonstrated by actions, that there is a place for INTEGRITY in Barbados’ politics, perhaps young able people from many disciplines will enter the political fray. This will not only foster confidence in Barbados’ politics – which seems sadly lacking by the percentage of the population not exercising their right to vote – but will offer choice away from the Legal Fraternity which because of actions taken by a FEW, has lost the respect they should enjoy.

Of serious concern is the alleged buying of votes, this leads to a dangerous road of everything being for sale. When money can no longer be used as an inducement, an element of those who have been paid will most likely resort to coercion to enforce their will. As we have seen in other places this is dangerous territory and an area to be avoided.

On the plus side, it was nice to see all sections of the Barbados community, being able to enjoy the political meetings without hindrance and to be at ease doing so, that is something to treasure.

David; A thoughtful and timely article!

It is not going to be easy! Stuart has to completely change his ways almost immediately. I understand that he took possibly a record time to mark his own X on the ballot. That does not portend well for decision making in the future if his last minute decision problem extends into this new administration.

The next few weeks will be very instructive on how this new administration will go. The estimates will loom like an elephant in a small room in this period. Will the BLP stories of agreed cutbacks in expenditure of 150 million dollars for the coming fiscal year, allegedly agreed to by the last administration, be proven to be lies or will they be shown to be truth?
Will the PM and his administration put some more emphasis on the Economy?
Will there be money available to carry out their relatively few Manifesto promises? Will the entire cabinet be front benchers with a couple of senators taken from the losing ministers thrown in for good measure?
Will the PM at last throw off the DT legacy, especially as related to Cabinet picks? Will the PM also do anything about seeking the maximum benefits for the CLICO sufferers by pursuing CLICO’s assets to the full extent of the law? Will he find a way to allow the UWI to at least maintain its services at current levels with no further expansion? Will he put a competent MInister of Finance in place? he has what appears to be one in the person of David Estwick?

Will he bring the people into his confidence to the extent feasible?

On another matter, Just imagine the possible ramifications of his statement about personnaly seeing money or other inducements passing during this last election cycle. I have been around for several election cycles as a listener at numerous political meetings and have never seen any instance of money being passed out or received. Indeed, the money passing stories seemed to have been concocted to condemn the other side (eat them out drink them out but vote them out) as there never appeared to have been any hard first-person evidence of such. The PM’s statement suggests that the very best person has now seen and presumably has evidence about such infelicities and presumably he has the power to bring it to an end. Can we hope that some action will be taken in the very near future to wrestle this escalating problem to the ground? Will that story just fizzle out especially in the face of the strong stories of very new businesses being involved in the alleged briberies and also the prevalance of the stories of ipods and ipads and other high tech toys being now used as the gifts of choice.

Despite what now appears to be the consensus on the wickham wobbling polls, something still seems strange to me. Suppose Wickham is true and correct in his statements about the polls. Might that suggest that something unprecedented went wrong in this elections? Might it have been bribery on an unprecedented scale skewing the results? Could there be also some other unprecedented factors that might have been involved?

Just some questions that can be asked on the FS money passing sighting;
Is’nt FS very recognizable? Did he see the situation in person and in the flesh? Was it a video he saw? If he saw it in the flesh did he call the police? If he saw it in flesh did the person or people who were engaged in that activity not recognize him? Did they recognize him and thought that it was allright to still carry out the activity? Could his pronouncements be a message to his own people to clean up his act, given his vaunted and trumpeted integrity?

On the other side; Will the BLP parliamentarians settle their leadership problem within the next few days? Should Owen again pass on the mantle of leadership to Mia or Dale Marshall? Is Mia now the best person to work with the DLP for the overall good of Barbados? Does such a job put her in a perhaps unassailable situation to lead the country a few years from now?

I recall the Sandiford Administration winning the Elections after the death of Barrow and declaring at that time that the Economy was batting like sobers, yet a few months after winning reality hit home and that reality forced the premature end of that administration. The tea leaves seem to be lining up in the same way this time around.

I suspect we are in for an interesting few weeks ahead

As usual the taxpayers will be the last to know, but know that they will find out eventually and act accordingly.

Regilow; I agree totally with your post above. Indeed, I recall posting something similar over a year ago. The only difference to the current situation was that I think I had called for a close vote with FS losing and the others working together.

i believe the money and gifts factor on election day offset de whole thing,live cash and gifts does pass in the so called ghettos in the streets on election day ,i cant speak for no other areas, i live in ah so called bad man town ,but this time i never see it so yet ppl were given as much as 10 grand to share out in 100,200 and how they see fit and as ghetto ppl most of them handed out 5000 and keep back de other half for themselves then they brag and partied like rock stars,one side give out 100’s and de ppl that thought they were in trouble backraise it with brandy and started their bidding at 500,and and some ppl got as much as ah 1000,and u know when u handed out that kind of money in ah housing scheme it turns into ah frenzy and police had to be called in by some of de same ppl who was shearing money like food

thing is it was easier to buy the young vote with the tablets ,ipads and phones and one point we had ah car down hey park handing them out along with ah free t-shirt ,flag and all other election gear ,and i said to my self look how these politicians think about us

Equal Rights and Justice, you are spot on with your analysis. I can clearly see a Tivoli Gardens and a ‘Dudus” emerging in Barbados. That was how the Jamaican “don” culture emerged and the country has not recovered from it all like now. This type of situation will not inspire private sector/investor confidence. Just like like Michael Manley in the 1970s in Jamaica trying to take from the rich to give to the poor through “freeness”, I am seeing this DLP government doing the same thing through the Constituency Councils. such. So sad, but capital flight will be the order of the day. Its only a matter of time.

Constituency councils need to go. what a waste of public resources and an easy path for even more corruption as though we need another.

Enablers of corruption and drug dealing, while not doing anything to create jobs or encouraging local food production, also not encouraging young people become independent but encouraging the in activites to have criminal records and fill up the prison. That is the type of politician now slithering across Barbados.

No wonder young people have become so disillusioned and have a don’t care attitude, the leaders who should be setting the positive examples are the ones encouraging negativity among the youth.

Demons don’t like exposure – Like it is.

Like it is – appears to me that the only ones got catspraddled in the elections were the two political parties. All their corrupt business continues to hit the streets. Now that is what I call catspraddle, it will pay them (as the taxpayers have to pay them monthly) to do the peoples business minus the corruption. I know that party faithfuls don’t care about corruption as long as they are getting something out of it.

Prime Minister Stuart should review all the names that he knew or heard of who sold/bought votes before he makes them public. I am sure that he would not want to be embarrassed.

Let us “fill in the blanks” and thenhit this punch line.

“Hurry up an fix it”.

Here we go.

Tourism sufferin from poor advertisin.
Hurry up an fix it.

tummuch forex spennin on luxury car.
Hurry up an fix it.

I ain’t no Gabby so I gine left it to wunna to continyah

The attorney general would prefer to make it look like the voters are the criminals and culprits for selling the votes, but not the candidates and his bosom colleagues for buying the votes.

Campaign funding from business houses will continue until Government place a tax cap on these so-called gifts. How in God’s world should a business house write a cheque for millions of dollars to fund a particular party and not a man can trace the movement. Prudent accounting principle stipulates that you can only give away a million dollars if you have millions and if your company have directors, transparency should be in place.

@Well Well
Never mind the taunt of Like it is.Continue your contribution,you are making a lot of sense to the well intentioned.The Dems have won a battle but time will tell they will lose the war within 5 years.They are an incompetent lot with few exceptions.I suggest Stuart take control of Finance and Estwick Tourism and Economic Development.

G.tackle – the sad part is most of the culprits would prefer to carry on their corrupt ways indefinitely and at the continued expense of the taxpayers. now they have all found themselves in a situation whereby they will be greatly challenged. They had the majority and were severely challenged, what will happen now that both parties have been forced to enter unfamiliar territory???

Even though there may be X amount of people eligible to vote, they are many persons that do not participate due to their religion. Maybe a survey could be done to decipher how large a number these persons are.

Because of the purchasing of votes with corned beef, biscuits and rum in the 60s and coming forward by the likes of deighton Mottley and grantley Adams; we have this situation today that has graduated and escalated to what is going on now, purchasing votes with money, house, land and drugs is a direct result of the corned beef and biscuit mentality that has been encouraged and practiced for decades.

Sleepy Smith can’t even talk, at his age he is still always trying to get something for free.

All of you who had seen politicians buying votes should have taken photos of them and post them here on BU. It is no point talking about it with no evidence.

During the campaign Stuart has been protrayed by those who supported him as a man having INTEGRITY.this/should not go unnoticed by Stuart. The fact is the Integrity gauntlet has been placed firmly and squarely at his feet and is imperative that he sees this piece of legislation enacted as quickly as possibe. NO “IF,s or BUTS about it .Those of us who supporting him are watching with roving eyes.