BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Prime Minister Mia Mottley has indicated that her new Barbados Labour Party (BLP) government will introduce legislation governing how legislators cross the floor following a general election. Mottley, who was returned to office following Wednesday’s general election by a 30-nil margin – the same as had been the case in the last two general elections -said that the issue will be among priority matters discussed after the new cabinet is sworn in on Monday.
On both occasions, successful BLP candidates crossed the floor to become opposition leaders. Mottley said that when her parliamentary party met on Thursday to ratify her position as prime minister, “we also agreed as a parliamentary party that one of the first bills that we will introduce into this Parliament is what we would call anti-defection legislation for persons crossing the floor.”
She said the proposal was raised by party members, who argued that elected representatives who sever ties with the platform on which they were elected should return to the electorate.
“If you are prepared to break, whether voluntarily or by whatever means, that you should go back to the polls and allow people to be able to validate your decision,” Mottley said, acknowledging that Barbados’ constitution does not formally recognise political parties.
But she said the political reality was that voters cast ballots based on party affiliation, policies, and manifestos.
“The de facto reality is that people run on a political party ticket and people are accepted not only in their own individual right, but also as the representative of this party, its programmes, its policies, its manifesto,” she said.
Mottley said that commitment was reinforced by the practice of candidates signing the party manifesto, pledging to be bound by its contents.
Mottley said the government would again extend the offer of additional Senate appointments to the party receiving the second-highest number of votes in the general election.
“I did it once, I did it twice, and I will do it three times. It is up to the Democratic Labour Party again. I trust and pray that they will do what the country expects of them to be able to appoint two persons,” Mottley said, adding that the government is prepared to act early to facilitate those appointments within the existing constitutional framework.
“How we get it done within the context of the current constitutional framework, we are prepared to make sure it happens. We are prepared to make it happen as an early order of business,” Mottley said.
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