The following was received from an anonymous person. The BU blogmaster will let this play and follow where it leads, for the moment – David, Blogmaster
I thought I would let you and the readers on BU, know about one of the Barbados Election Programmes used by the DLP to learn about voters in Barbados. It is called “firewater” and trust me when I say that no one in the DLP wants you to know about this because it has aided them in the past, and because no one in bim can handle the truth about what goes on around election time! How do they know what they know about you during election time?
Firewater came into light during the last 2013 election. It is a programme used to show the voters list and display information about all who are registered to vote in Barbados. In its most basic form, it is a database, with entries pertaining to ALL registered voters in Barbados. Information can be accessed from the database at any time without any clearance or authorization, and because we are talking about voters, access to information about the who’s who of Barbados is granted.
When was the last time you heard about firewater in the news?
You have probably never heard about firewater before because it has never been mentioned once by any member of the DLP because they do not want the public to be aware of what they have been doing with your information! With this programme everyone in Barbados is vulnerable! Firewater can access everything about a person such as National registration number, permanent address and polling district. It has information about every single person who is registered to vote in Barbados so that means even you. I am not aware of any laws regarding the use of information in such a programme outside of the Electoral and Boundaries Commission office(s) but I thought you would like to know.
Firewater is a programme that only the DLP has access to. I am doubtful that the other parties in Barbados have this kind of tool at their disposal. Anyone who is registered to vote can be found by name search, so it is very easy to find someone who is listed as a registered voter. That means anyone 18 years or older at the time of the last election. The database can pull up any one of the 380,000 names listed. No one in the DLP wants you to know about firewater so here is a perfect example of why no freedom of information legislation has been passed.
I have attached some photos of firewater in action. As you can see the database is quite extensive. Firewater was used in the last election in 2013 so I cannot tell you if it will be used again this time around. Firewater is only one of many ‘Barbados Electoral Programmes’ used by the DLP. Most likely, there will be some improvements to these tools in the upcoming elections as the DLP also controls the government.
I don’t know what else to tell you about firewater other than the fact that this programme exists. Again, this could be one of those issues that borders on the line of legality or it could be completely illegal for the DLP to have compiled the voters’ information in such a manner. I guess it is a question of WHO has access to the database and WHO can use it for what purpose?! I want to caution who and every Barbadian that this is a very comprehensive list with access to your friends, and family’s information. It can be used by persons anyone, and on any computer outside the Barbados Electoral and Boundaries Commission office(s).
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.