The presence of several members of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) in St Vincent and the Grenadines a week ahead of elections in that country has stirred some Vincentians who have been posting under a story and pictures that captured the arrival of the group.
The information came to light when iWitness News reported that a group had arrived in St Vincent and the Grenadines on Thursday, a week ahead of the November 27 general election, to assist Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves’ ruling Unity Labour Party’s election machinery as the contents of an unreleased poll was suggesting ULP was trailing the Opposition New Democratic Party.
Political scientist Professor Don Marshall, who specialises in political economy of development, said it was not a welcoming development.
“As someone who has been tracking and following elections and understanding how democracy works, I do believe that this is not necessarily a welcoming development because we are dealing with sovereign governments and general elections ought to be fought domestically involving the various competing parties.
“When political parties across the region, particularly when you have sitting heads and/ or representatives of the ruling parties or even the opposition parties intervening or politicking in another, I think it takes us beyond the realm of what should obtain, because ultimately CARICOM works on the basis of regional cooperation among sitting regimes.
“It could be quite uncomfortable and unfortunate if you have a change in government, for example, in St Vincent and the Grenadines, and that new NDP government has to contend with engagements on a variety of matters that relate to CARICOM with the Barbados Government after its head of government or operatives of the ruling party would have participated in trying to encourage Vincentians to vote the other way,” he said.
The director and senior research fellow of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) said it did not bode well for cementing and securing the integrity of the regional integration movement, given the temperature in the region in not holding together on United States ship strikes within the region.
“We can least afford this kind of tension that could attend to regimes that believe that another regime sitting in another capital is not supportive or was not supportive in its march to victory at the polls, so I don’t
see the system being positive. And you also have situations where the prosecution of a political party in office should take place featuring the people making a decision on how to assess the last term of office.
Marshall questioned how at a time when it was “desperately” needed for the region to engage in campaign finance reform, how much more complicated would it cost governments to be sending delegations or themselves be participating in the hustings in another country.
“It raises questions about the funding. Who is financing this? Are taxpayers’ dollars financing this? And if indeed taxpayers’ dollars are not financing this, how do we get transparency in relation to the support of political operatives within the ruling government, travelling and looking to lend support. How is that monetised and supported? This is an unnecessary set of interventions and activities that does not in anyway uplift or augment our understanding of how democracy can or should work,” Marshall stated.
Meantime, political analyst Peter Wickham said the situation was neither unusual or alarming, as labour parties across the region were a brotherhood/ sisterhood and generally helped each other.
He said in the past Kenny Anthony and Gonsalves campaigned together.
“The ULP generally supports labour party efforts across the region in pursuit of their fraternal bonds . . . and as you know, they [labour parties] also share political consultants, so this type of thing is to be expected. I think it speaks to the evolution of a regional politics which I do like,” he said. ( SG)
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