Somehow I believe Damani. He sounds like a keen, honest young fellow, not yet caught up in the wiles of old politicos.

“If its just a matter of putting money in your pockets, you could as well turn to the drug pushers and criminals” (or words to that effect)
Have we seen a turn of the table, where the same DP & C’s are paying people to support certain candidates,who they feel will be sympathetic to their cause/trade?

Wow watching, I don’t mean to offend you but you strike me as a DLP yardfowl. I can assure you that I am not Noel Lynch and I find that insinuation to be a fairly desperate move (even though it is hilarious).However, I know what happened in Brittons Hill from PERSONAL experience and nothing you say or do can win back the respect I once had for Freundel Stuart. The content of your post shows a type of tribalism that really should have no place in Barbadian politics but alas! That will never be because I know i’m being very idealistic and naive.

“when we know that the politicians are the whores, and the vote sellers are simply the Johns.”
Great analogy Simple Simon….love it !

Damani …you know I liking you nuff. You are speaking with a level head. Doan mind some of these political pimps we have here pon BU. Dem jest waiting fuh dem whores to get back wid de money.

Isn’t it precisely because as a society we always ignored or laughed about the well-known corned beef & biscuit scenario for so long that we now are in this situation? That’s what happens when you have dysfunction and a breakdown of law and order in society, it always starts with the small things that are allowed to remain unchecked. Back in 2008 even I knew people who were offered $100 to vote. So now that it has been upped to house, land, drugs, more money, etc. should we really be surprised?
This is what happens when you have a society that refuses to set boundaries about what is and is not acceptable, and to ensure that laws are actually enforced. It’s not just with the vote-buying either, you see it happening in so many other aspects of Barbados.
And still many of us are walking around with this silly, false sense of pride that we are not like some other “islands” and countries because we had no political violence. Well, those other islands and countries didn’t find themselves like that overnight; obviously things would have started on a lesser level for them too, including the vote-buying like it did once for us.

Some solutions would be first of all to actually have political parties that have ZERO tolerance for corruption or dysfunction, and we know that is not presently the case. Then to actually enforce the law, make sure that arrests are made, names of the offenders are made public, the parties and politicians whose votes were bought should also be made public. Then of course certain social and economic issues have to be addressed, which is far more complex.

…

Bushtea; Your prescription sounds OK on the surface. But times would appear to have changed.

The Drug Dons can actually now ensure that they can deliver a number of solid votes by whatever means. It is no longer “eat yuh out, drink yuh out, and vote yuh out”. Nowadays, If yuh take the chance of not voting how you promised the Don you would, the consequences could be quite dire.

Yes I am sure checkit-out and I was most shocked! I couldn’t believe what I was told, that “money sharing down at the office, go and get lil bit on election morning and remember it when yuh go to the polls”

Then I inquired as to how much this money was and exactly what office the young man in the ” dems now dems again shirt” was speaking about (just to clarify that he meant the PM’s constituency office) and I was given directions to the office and told that the amount was $300.

I cannot speak from first-hand knowledge about this example I am about to give but I was told by a friend of mine that in certain parts of the constituency, a boy in a yellow shirt was riding his bicycle through the community, yelling “money down at de office, get it quick” I thought that was political suicide on Mr Stuart’s part but apparently not.

With all this technology in our hands why hasn’t there been a video of all of this vote buying? Wunna got cell phones and Blackberries and ent tek nutting?

As Caswell said, it is a really sad day when politicians could encourage young men to engage in deviance. And then would turn around and criticize the other deviant practises of the youth. I pity those young men because if any arrests are to be made, they are the ones who would be thrown into Dodds, not the politicians who recruited them.

DAMANI, I THINK I CAN SAY I KNOW MR STUART REASONABLY WELL AND I AM SURE THAT HE WOULD NOT SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGE THAT KIND OF BEHAVIOUR. IT WOULD HAVE TO TAKE PLACE UNKNOWN TO HIM. MR LYNCH WAS A POOR CHOICE AS A CANDIDATE SINCE TURNING HIS BACK ON THE CONSTITUENCY AFTER THE LAST ELECTION AND WAS NO THREAT TO MR STUART. EVEN DIE HARD BLPITES WERE TURNED OFF BY MR LYNCH’S PERCEIVED POMPOUSNESS. MR STUART WAS NEVER IN ANY DANGER. MATTER OF FACT, BRINGING URBAN UNDER HIS WING WAS A MASTER STROKE FOR IT ENABLED HIM TO MEETTHE NEES OF THE DISGRUNTLED IN THE AREA AND EMBOLDENED HIS STATURE AS A REPRESENTATIVE.

Caswell I agree with you 100%! We are allowing corruption to firmly root itself in the moral fibre of our society. That is very worrisome to me because will the Barbados I know be recognisable if this corruption continues to be facilitated the way that it is now?

balance, no need for the all caps, it makes it difficult to read your submission. I can agree with you that Mr Lynch is extremely pompous. However, none of his operatives approached me with offers to buy my vote. I cannot say whether it did or did not occur but I was never personally approached.

I was personally approached by the PM’s operatives and it would be very difficult for me to believe Mr Stuart was totally oblivious to the goings-on inside his own offie. There is no way Mr Stuart was not aware that money was being distributed at his constituency office and unless he was never once there since he called the elections, he knew or at the very least strongly suspected. What kind or representative cannot be found at his constituency office at any time during an election campaign?

And who would be providing this money if not him? I would sincerely hope that he was totally innocent and had nothing to do with this vote buying but all of the evidence points in the opposite direction unfortunately. I am speaking from personal experience here and I am not trying to smear Mr Stuart’s character in the least.

Damani
Since you were approached personally, why don’t you swear an affidavit at a JP, go to the Police or the Press with your accusations, since you know the “operatives”’ who approached you. There gotta be a law against this kind of inducement; after all it is illegal to sell alcoholic beverages during Elections so they must be a law against buying or selling votes.

In other words “Put up or shut up”.

@Sargeant | February 26, 2013 at 12:29 AM |
This damani is a fraud and seeing island gal hug he up you know sometthing is fishy. Im not buying whatever crap damani is selling.

With sadness I must now concede that Barbados is the Hypocrisy and Duplicity capital of the Caribbean. On another thread and in another post I was proud that the PEOPLE spoke. The questions I’m fighting with over the last 96 hours is which people and why?
What does it mean for the future?
How deep into the quagmire have we allowed ourselves to descend?
If this was God’s will what lesson is he waiting to teach us?

Again, I await the PM and AG’s further words and actions along with the new cabinet before commenting much more.

Whoever won the elections, would have won it by buying it, albeit via different methods. My great gran used to say that “God don’t like ugly and good always wins out.”. What happens when neither side is good and both are ugly?

My recurring question therefore returns, “will the real leaders please stand up?”

@damani
I’m curious as to TTP, ac, !, fractured or Carson’s response to your experience. Watching and balance speak out of ignorance and blinded loyalty.

@all
Imagine…if only ONE DLP seat was. “bought”, then the landscape of the entire election, which would have been 15-15 was grossly manipulated. A worrying thought heading into more challenging times.

Just Observing

Allegedly this is just a repeat of the prior election. Hundreds of dollars a person happened then also.

But as I said, pity the fool who thinks he can play with the winds of the world.

He will be blown away.

The biggest mistake the BLP made was to underestimated PM STUART and still continue one would think that by now the BLP yardflows would have learnt their lessons. I can assure you if Stuart says something he has proof or evedience to back it up FOOLS!

Prime Minister Stuart said he witnessed it. Steve Blackett intimated he had never seen an election like it. Dale Marshall said it. Cynthia Forde acknowledged it.

The question then must be: what role should the Electoral Office and other regulatory agencies play in addressing concerns raised of vote buying. Should it be addressed or ignored.

The vote buying by both parties is not a fairy tale and cannot now be undone. It already happened and if something is not done will continue to happen indefinitely going forward. Let’s see if this party has any honesty left and with the help of the other party, actually do something and put an end to it.. In my opinion, Stuart witnessed, according to him, the murder of the countries integrity, now let’s see if he names the guilty parties or seriously bring forth INTEGRITY legislation to end the practice..

There is a reason why BU has been asking the DLP supporters to be gracious in victory. It isn’t that we don’t appreciate that one should feel like celebrating when the side you support wins. Some members of the BU household have been around for a while and we have not seen this level of political tribalism ever in Barbados till now. We are traveling a dangerous path to nowhere and we need to find a way to pull it back. This call will likely not resonate with ardent political supporters but they should really try to understand what is happening here.

what is happening here is the need for the BLP to point this abhorrent behavior on the DLP and something must be said. There would always be war in politics but at the end of the day TRUTH must prevailed. it is apparent that since the PM and other members of the DLP came out and said they saw this illegal activity taking place the BEES on this blog have been on the defensive as if the BLP was the guilty party being accused of vote buying and has therefore launched and attack issuing comments accusing the the DLP of illegal activity on voting DAY. THIS IS WRONG and would not be tolerated.

BAF, has it ever occurred to you that some if not most of these scholarship and exhibition winners will return to contribute. Given that a lot have tried over the years and were soundly mistreated, we also have to take into consideration that there are not enough jobs and positions available for scholars to contribute anything in Bim i personally know of lawyers and doctors now in Barbados who cannot find jobs and have to emigrate anyway. My point continues to be, Trinidad sends 40% of their brightest minds out to study, Trinidad now owns Barbados, around the world, India, China, Japan, USA, Germany, Canada etc, etc, sends their brightest minds around the world to study cause they know that some if not most will contribute even if they do not return, in some for or another t the country of birth. Most people in Bim don’t understand that a countries population is their only true resource, trying to academically imprison scholars on an island that has very little resources, will see that island remaining in the 18th century mode, with politicians continuing their small island corruption indefinitely. How many scholars do you see wanting to enter the nasty swamp of politics in Bim. The last scholar who had anything to do with politicians in Bim was more than happy to die in his sleep and he had just turned 40.

It is a serious matter when rabid party faithfuls refuse to understand that vote buying was the order of the day for both parties for election 2013, when people pretend to be so blind that they cannot see, then they will accept any form of corruption and turn a blind eye, just because of party affiliation.

Call for new Elections , The PM is Fraud man over all other Fraud men , Again the proof from the lips of the crooks that will not call the police on other crooks lawyers ,
Owen now to run away from MIA , so now all eyes will be on her alone as he now step down or got kick down. The Over drinker and one of the Masters of the Super Massive Fraud did not make it back , But the the PM now in place as the new gate keeper , But We have the Keys ,,,,Wake up People We will get them all for the World to see , The Church to the govt House ,,, Massive Fraud ,,, the one two punch to the People Minds ,,
VOTE TRUTH NOT PARTY, AS YOU CAN SEE YOU ALL VOTED LIES AND NOW MORE LIES TO COME ,,
THE TRUTH IS ON ITS WAY..

CALL FOR NEW ELECTIONS ,,,, FRAUD NEED NOT START OF THIS NOW TERM.