Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley is calling for tangible ways to mark the 75th anniversary of Universal Adult Suffrage in Barbados next March.
The right to vote for all people over 21 years of age was made possible in the Representation of the People Bill which was debated in the House of Assembly on August 17, 1950 and proclaimed on February 20, 1951.
“People like us could not vote, were not given the opportunity to be able to vote and that only those who owned property – And I can assure you that even 100 years after the abolition of slavery or to be more precise 122 years after the abolition of slavery – ordinary people in their numbers, adults, could not vote to determine their destiny, could not seek to become firm craftsmen of their faith,” Mottley said.
She was presenting the findings of the 2024 Report of the Parliamentary Reform Commission to the House of Assembly yesterday.
The Prime Minister expressed hope that “we will find an appropriate way to educate the children of this country, the people of this nation of what was done in their name 75 years ago”.
Mottley lauded the late National Hero Sir Grantley Adams saying it was a revolutionary act, his decision to allow “hawkers and agricultural workers and dockside workers and maids and gardeners and drivers and well diggers the right to vote” when only those with property (landed gentry) had previously enjoyed that right.
Additionally, it was from the Representation of the People Act, Mottley said, that all of the major gains in Barbados were achieved.
She listed the introduction of Cabinet government, the attainment of Independence in 1966 led by late Prime Minister and National Hero Errol Walton Barrow, the attainment of republican status in 2021, the introduction of free education that “has lifted so many Bajans out of poverty”, the redistribution of land via the Tenantry Freehold Purchase Act, and introduction of unemployment benefits and the minimum wage.
Mottley said Universal Adult Suffrage was take for granted by too many people. Noting it was achieved by peaceful means via collaboration between the Barbados Labour Party and the Barbados Workers’ Union, she said in contrast, South Africa fought violently for the right which was only granted in 1994.
Observing yesterday’s session of the House of Assembly were students from George Lamming Primary School and The Ellerslie School. (SAT)
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