Political analyst Peter Wickham rubbished claims by Leader of the Opposition Ralph Thorne that new free movement legislation is a covert government tactic to swell the electoral roll, saying such assertions are baseless and ignore long-standing legal provisions for Commonwealth voters.
Wickham described the suggestion as “an exercise in futility”, noting that current laws already allow some non-nationals to vote after a period of residence.
“The laws of Barbados, even before the Single Market and Economy came, allowed Commonwealth citizens to vote after living here for three years,” Wickham told Barbados TODAY. “That was the basis on which the court ruled in 2018, allowing several people to participate in the election. Ralph Thorne was a member of the Barbados Labour Party at the time and would be fully aware that there’s absolutely nothing you can do to turn back the clock on that.”
Wickham added that the new Caribbean Community (Free Movement of Nationals) Bill, which aims to formalise full free movement for nationals of Barbados and three other member states, does not alter the procedure or timeframe for acquiring citizenship or voting rights.
“The single market and economy facility does not change the speed at which people can gain citizenship. So the idea that there’s a shortcut to citizenship that would allow them to vote sooner is something that doesn’t make sense,” he said.
The new legislation would allow unrestricted movement, employment, and enterprise throughout Barbados, Belize, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica and other candidate CARICOM states. It forms part of the regional drive to implement free movement, which officially began on October 1.
Wickham argued that the opposition leader’s stance not only misrepresents the facts but could ultimately damage his own party’s reputation and credibility.
“I think what he’s doing is essentially self-harm, and it is long-term self-harm to the Democratic Labour Party by placing the DLP on the opposite side of an issue that makes no sense,” he said. “The Democratic Labour Party was always at the forefront of regional integration.”
Previous DLP leaders had pioneered the very integration process now being questioned, Wickham noted.
“If you look back at the Single Market and Economy initiative, it was the Erskine Sandiford government that signed the Grand Anse Declaration, and it was Errol Barrow who started the CARIFTA movement that gave way to CARICOM,” he noted. “The idea that the DLP is opposed to these things just does not make sense.”
Wickham also labelled as “ludicrous” the suggestion that Prime Minister Mia Mottley would need to engineer the electorate to remain in power.
“The idea that Prime Minister Mottley, after winning all 30 seats twice, needs to do this to win an election is ludicrous,” he said. “What votes are there to gain? She already has 70 per cent of the support in Barbados based on the last election results. What more can you get than that?” (SB)
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