BARBADOS | Voting underway in Barbados General Elections

BRIDGETOWN,  Barbados, January 19, 2022 - Voting in Wednesday’s general election across Barbados got off to a smooth start at 6 a.m. and from all indications, freports are that everything is going smoothly.

Having placed my vote earlier today, I'm encouraging all Barbadians to do the same.
Protocols are in place, and I can assure you all precautions have been taken to ensure you can exercise your right to vote in a safe environment. pic.twitter.com/uCN1TDudvo

— Mia Amor Mottley (@miaamormottley) January 19, 2022

It’s the first election being held since the island became a republic in November last year, and approximately 266,330 persons, or  just over 92 per cent of the Barbadian population are registered to vote in the poll.

A total of 108 candidates, representing seven political parties and nine independents are contesting the poll that political observers say is a contest  between the ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP) led by Mia Mottley and the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) led by Verla DePeiza.

Both parties are fielding 30 candidates and will also come up against the Alliance Party for Progress led by former Opposition leader Bishop Joseph Atherley that is contesting 20 seats. The BLP won all 30 parliamentary seats in the 2018 general election

The vote is also proceeding against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to voters among over 5, 600 persons in isolation unable to cast their ballots in the snap poll.

The issue was at the center of a court challenge on Tuesday brought by Philip Catlyn of the Barbados Sovereignty Party on the grounds that the rights of Barbadians who have to be isolated due to SARS-CoV-2 virus concerns, were being trampled under Section 6 of the Representation of the People Act. 

Catlyn was seeking a restraining order against the holding of today’s General Elections until “the disenfranchisement of thousands of electors who are in quarantine due to the zoonotic COVID-19 viral pandemic is resolved beforehand.”

The suit  also challenged Dame Mason’s dissolution of Parliament on December 27 last year, and the issuing of Election Writs, saying the act was unauthorised, contrary to law and illegal; arbitrary, unreasonable, irrational, irregular and an improper exercise of discretion; that it was capricious, erroneous, an excess of jurisdiction, ultra vires and an abuse of power and that it was in conflict with Section 6 of the Representation of the People Act.

Madame Justice Cicely Chase dismissed the  challenge, declaring the High Court had no jurisdiction to adjudicate on the matter, thus paving the way for the general election to proceed.

Mottley, the leader of the Barbados Labour Party and first female prime minister of her country, called the elections after eighteen months in office winning the 2018 elections for a five-year term. She pointed to her party’s overwhelming majority in parliament and noted she still had much of her first term left to serve.

“On this the 27th day of December, 2021, I have decided that it would be in the interest of Barbados, our country, our home that we recalibrate as a people behind one Government and one leader.

"Let me say that whoever emerges as that leader I will support.  I will do my utmost to promote the interest of Barbados and Barbadians in all that I say and do, as I have done in all of my public career and would continue to do until the Lord takes my breath,” she emphasized.

“Were I motivated solely by the need to survive,” she said, “we could bask, my friends, in the glory of a 29-1 parliament and ride COVID out for the next 18 months, ”  she pointed out.

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