With the general election due in three weeks from today, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart is contending that his party’s main rival for office is running out of steam even before the campaign gets into full swing.
Stuart yesterday charged that in anticipation of an election, the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) had begun its campaign much too early, while his Democratic Labour Party (DLP) cruised along as he contemplated the date.
And now that the election has been set for May 24, the DLP leader said, the opposing party was simply fatigued.
“They had about three campaign launches already and now they are on their fourth. We always intended to have only one campaign and that’s the campaign that resulted from the fixing of a polling date by the Prime Minister of Barbados,” Stuart told reporters as he and other members of the DLP paid their $250 deposits into the Treasury ahead of nomination on Monday.
“They fixed their own polling date and had their own campaigns, and I suppose having created a lot excitement for themselves, they are now depending on us to create some excitement for them because the fatigue factor has taken over with them,” he stressed.
BLP Chairman George Payne had told supporters at a Heroes Day picnic on the East Coast on Saturday he was somewhat concerned by what he saw as a laissez-faire approach by the incumbent going into the election.
Payne had said with such “a poor record” after ten years in office, the low keyed approach could mean that either the DLP was resigned to losing, or intent on returning to office through some nefarious means, although he said it was likely due to the incumbent being ashamed of its record.
However, Stuart said there was nothing low keyed about the DLP’s campaign, which he said would start on Sunday.
Meantime, Minister of Education Ronald Jones also suggested that the strategy all along was to allow their opponents to “run out of things to talk about” before calling the election.
“The show is not over until the fat lady walks off the stage. It is not until the fat lady sings, as some people believe. Her singing is only a stage to the conclusion of the exercise. We gave the other side 18 months because we knew their mood and their tone,’ Jones told those attending a DLP picnic in Christ Church East Central, the constituency he has held since 2003.
(CM)
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