Political pollster Peter Wickham believes that the consensus between Prime Minister Mia Mottley and Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne in nominating Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic to be the island’s second president sends “a clear signal” that he is viewed in a positive light across the partisan divide.
“The fact that the opposition leader has agreed says that he obviously doesn’t see any conflict potentially arising,” pollster Wickham told Barbados TODAY. “I think that that is a clear signal. The opposition leader had a right to object, and if that’s the case, it would have gone to Parliament for a vote, which is symbolic we know because the government would have won, but the fact that it’s been done on the basis of consensus I think on this occasion is indicative of the fact that they believe that he can operate in that capacity.”
Lt Col Bostic, who was MP for the City between 2013 and 2022 and served as Minister of Health and Wellness between 2018 and 2022, became well-known during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wickham rejected the notion that a person who served in political office could not act impartially and outlined his satisfaction with the nomination.
Pollster Peter Wickham. (FP)
“Jeffrey Bostic has satisfied the cooling-off period in terms of the number of years he has to be out of politics,” he said, “In addition to that, he’s someone who is widely respected, and it speaks volumes about the regard that people have for him that he has been chosen.”
But retired University of the West Indies lecturer Dr George Belle did “not see anything extraordinary” about Lt Col Bostic’s selection. He noted that the Governor General and now president has long been an individual who is politically affiliated. He declared any prime minister would be hard-pressed to find one who was not politically aligned, and that there was nothing unusual about such a selection.
He said, “To find somebody who is not politically affiliated is going to be difficult.”
Belle outlined that the selection process had been done in accordance with the constitution of Barbados and with the support of both the prime minister and opposition leader and will go before Parliament for affirmation.
“I don’t see anything extraordinary about what has happened so far other than that of following the constitutional protocol,” Belle said. “The question of who they choose is obviously very much up to the prime minister and whether the opposition leader will be able to cooperate with the prime minister. If the other protocols of the constitution are followed, then I don’t see any issue really other than that.” (JB)
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