The Democratic Labour Party gathers this weekend at its George Street, Belleville, St Michael headquarters for an annual conference that doubles as a referendum on its own survival.
The choice before delegates in today’s election comes down to two men who once sat together at the Cabinet table during the party’s 2008-2018 term in office.
Stephen Lashley, the party’s acting president for the past five months, is squaring off against Dr David Estwick in a straight two-way race for the presidency. Both released manifestos on the eve of the conference, each promising to drag the DLP back from the political wilderness after three consecutive 30-0 wipeouts at the polls.
The stakes could hardly be higher. A party that once alternated in government with the Barbados Labour Party now holds not a single seat in the House of Assembly and the fight for its top job is really a fight over how, or whether, it can claw its way back to relevance.
Lashley was elected vice-president last August and has run the party on an acting basis since, giving him five months to point to as a head start on his rival. He served a decade in Parliament and eight years as a Government minister and he is campaigning under the banner Renew, Connect, Lead.
His manifesto is heavy on infrastructure. He wants the DLP to become “data-driven” and “technology-enabled”, with modern membership, financial and communications systems built down to the level of individual polling districts. He points to five committees already functioning on strategic communications, branch and youth organisation, finance, governance and legal affairs, as proof that the rebuilding is not theoretical but already under way.
Spokespersons appointed under Senator Ryan Walters, he noted, were already engaging the Government on issues affecting Barbadians.
Lashley, a former minister of culture who represented Christ Church West Central, frames election readiness as a permanent condition rather than a pre-writ scramble, arguing preparation “must be continuous, and not something that begins shortly before polling day”. He is also promising a formal reconciliation effort to woo back members who have drifted from the party, alongside a recruitment push aimed at newcomers and an early leadership retreat meant to convert his campaign slogan into what he calls “collective action”.
Beyond party fixing, Lashley has attached his name to a policyreadiness agenda that includes proposed advisory councils, among them a Council of Elders and an Economic and Financial Council, meant to feed long-term national thinking on the economy, health care, housing, youth, agriculture and digital transformation.
He rounds out his manifesto with broader promises to Barbadians: better jobs, higher wages, affordable health care, and what he calls “a government that serves you”.
Estwick is running on a different theory: that the DLP’s problem isn’t process, but credibility, and that his three decades of service are the credentials to restore it. His theme, Renewal With Purpose, comes packaged with the slogan One Party. One Purpose. A Future To Build.
His manifesto leans on a résumé that predates Lashley’s time in frontline politics, as general secretary of the DLP in the early 1990s under the late David Thompson, 15 years as Member of Parliament for St Philip West from 2003 to 2018, several Cabinet portfolios and three General Election campaigns as a candidate.
He is betting that delegates, weary of losing, will gravitate toward a name they associate with the party’s more successful eras.
His platform rests on three pillars. “Tested Leadership” leans on that long record. A second pillar, built around the words “Mentor”, “Guide” and “Resource”, casts him as an elder statesman for the party’s Young Democrats and rising leaders. The third, “Resources To Rebuild,” points to his relationships across Government, the private sector and international partners as a pipeline for financial and technical support the party badly needs.
Under a section he titles “My Commitment To You”, Estwick lists five priorities: reuniting the party in “unity, respect and inclusion”; restoring its founding purpose by reconnecting with working families; rebuilding through stronger branches and year-round engagement; restoring credibility through what he calls bold, practical ideas; and preparing a new generation of leaders. His manifesto closes on the same Renew, Connect, Lead theme that runs through the wider conference, alongside his own tagline: Together, We Can Build The DLP To Victory Again.
Today’s event starts at 9 a.m., and before the polls open, there will be reports from the party’s various branches. (BA)
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