–in Bridgetown
A PUBLIC opinion poll has brought quite bad news for Barbados Prime Minister, Freundel Stuart, prior to the official opening here yesterday of the two-day CARICOM/Mexico Summit. The ’news’, according to findings of the Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES), is that Stuart’s Democratic Labour Party (DLP),which came to power in January 2008, could be a one-tem government with new elections less than a year away.
Commissioned by a private company, and conducted last weekend by CADRES Director, Peter Wickham (also a political consultant), the poll results would undoubtedly warm the heart of former three-term Prime Minister and current leader of the opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP), Owen Arthur.
Of some 1,080 respondents to the public opinion survey, conducted across the existing 30 parliamentary constituencies, just 29 percent gave a favourable approval rating to the Prime Minister for his performance as head of government, with a solid 43 percent recording a negative vote.
Further, when asked to identify the “preferred Prime Minister” a clear winning nod went to Opposition Leader Arthur, an economist by profession. He received almost 30 percent of the votes (29.8) compared with Stuart’s meagre approximate ten percent (9.9)—the lowest ranking ever for a sitting Barbados Prime Minister.
By profession a lawyer, Stuart succeeded the late Prime Minister and DLP leader, David Thompson, who died in October 2010 from cancer at 48.
The CADRES poll results, blazoned across the front page of the ‘Sunday Sun’ with screaming headline :“It’s Owen”, coincided with Prime Minister Stuart hosting his first-ever regional summit of CARICOM Heads of Government gathered here for the Second Mexico/CARICOM Summit.
Within a six-month period, starting in November last year, three governments were restricted to one-term—starting with the United Workers Party in St Lucia; the Jamaica Labour Party in December; an d earlier this month the defeat of the incumbent Free National Movement by the Progressive Labour Party (PLP)
Now the focus is on such an electoral occurrence also in Barbados and also likely in Grenada for the incumbent National Democratic Congress (NDC) of Prime Minister Tillman Thomas who was expected yesterday for the CARICOM/Mexico Summit.
Absent Portia and CCJ
+A significant absentee for scheduled caucus sessions by CARICOM leaders as well as the summit with Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon, will be Jamaica’s Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller
In a telephone interview yesterday (Sun) from Jamaica with her Special Advisor, Delano Franklyn, the Chronicle was told that the Prime Minister regretted her absence caused by the necessity to be present in parliament for the start of this week’s debate on the new national budget.
Questioned about Jamaica’s position on behind-the-scenes unofficial lobbying by the Trinidad and Tobago Government’s two-track approach to access the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as its final appellate court, Franklyn was quite explicit:
“That’s a matter for Trinidad and Tobago. So far as Jamaica is concerned, we are going ahead with plans already underway to scuttle relations with the Privy Council in London and move forward to have the CCJ as our final appellate institution…We do not favour any kind of half-way house approach for CCJ’s access”
The CCJ and Trinidad and Tobago’s decision to retain the Privy Council while accessing the appellate jurisdiction of the regional court only for criminal matters, is one of the sensitive issues for discussion in caucus among CARICOM leaders
Among Heads of Government here at the time of writing yesterday, were the current Community chairman, President Desi Bouterse of Suriname; the President of Guyana, Donald Ramotar and Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
(This poll was commissioned by a private company and published in yesterday’s Sunday Sun)