Political scientist Peter Wickham is urging the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) to pay close attention to recent election outcomes in Jamaica and Guyana, warning that low voter turnout in both countries signals deep disillusionment with opposition parties that fail to offer credible alternatives.
He believes the same problem is unfolding in Barbados, where declining voter participation is often blamed on general apathy but, in his view, more accurately reflects voters’ lack of enthusiasm for the opposition.
“Voter apathy to me speaks to a disinterest in supporting an alternative,” Wickham told Barbados TODAY in an interview.
“In a situation where Caribbean people don’t seem to feel that there’s something to come out and vote for, they stay at home.”
The warning comes days after general elections in Jamaica and Guyana revealed lukewarm support for opposition challengers.
In Jamaica, the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) won a third consecutive term on September 3, securing 34 of the 63 seats in Parliament.
The opposition People’s National Party (PNP) claimed 29 seats, but overall voter turnout was a meagre 39.5 per cent, one of the lowest in the country’s electoral history, when compared with the 78.4 per cent turnout recorded in 1980, the highest on record and the lowest being 37.9 per cent in 2020.
Guyana’s September 1 general election also reinforced the troubling pattern, with the incumbent People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) amassing over 240 000 votes, while the main opposition coalition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), faced a serious challenge from the newly formed We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party.
Though voter turnout hovered around 61 per cent, with other independent media reporting that it was lower, in key opposition strongholds like Region 4, preliminary figures showed the PPP/C making unprecedented gains.
“When they’re going to lose Region 4 and lose it on the basis of a low turnout, when the PPP Civic increases their vote count in Region 4, which is an area that they have always lost, it speaks volumes about the reality of the opposition,” Wickham said.
He drew a direct parallel to the local context, arguing that recent voter behaviour in Barbados cannot be chalked up to frustration with the ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP) alone.
Instead, he said, it mirrors a broader Caribbean trend of disenchantment with opposition politics.
“In 2022 and in the most recent by-election, the vast majority of people who did not vote were people who supported the Democratic Labour Party or would prefer to have supported the Democratic Labour Party and saw no reason to participate in the election,” he noted, pointing to the St James North political race earlier this year.
While some commentators have framed the pattern as voter apathy, Wickham rejected that interpretation.
“I am not quick to use the word apathy because I think that apathy is a more generalised reaction,” he said.
“Voting takes effort and time, and people are clearly not wasting their time to go and vote in a situation where they don’t think it’s going to make a difference.”
He maintained that the BLP has not experienced the same erosion in support as the DLP and continues to mobilise its base.
“If you look at the Barbados Labour Party support and the numbers, [it] has been relatively unchanged. So clearly, the BLP is not having a problem motivating people to vote for it. The problem is that you need two hands to clap,” he said.
Wickham added that the recent by-election in St James North was another missed opportunity for the opposition.
“There was a candidate that was not exciting to people,” he said.
The by-election, which recorded a voter turnout of about 38 per cent, saw the ruling BLP’s Chad Blackman receiving 2 723 votes out of 3 231 ballots cast, decisively outpacing his closest rival, Felicia Dujon of the DLP, who garnered 468 votes.
Widening the scope, Wickham said, “Look at the PNP, clearly they are not exciting Jamaicans and certainly in Guyana, the APNU had challenges and aren’t exciting anyone. And as a result, people stayed at home.”
Though the next general election in Barbados is not constitutionally required before 2027, the political analyst acknowledged speculation about the possibility of it happening earlier.
“I don’t know what is going to happen, but I could tell you that if they were held sooner rather than later, it could spell disaster for the Democratic Labour Party,” he said.
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