Mixed Reactions By Bajans To Election Call

Barbados, December 29, 2021 — While some expected the announcement, hundreds of Barbadians confessed they were reeling in shock and awe on Monday night after Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley called general elections for January 19, 2022.

Loop News took to the capital, Bridgetown, where some locals expressed they expected elections in 2022 while for others it was a complete surprise.

One City shopper jokingly told Loop “she didn’t even give chance for the Bajan people to digest their ham and turkey very well”

Kendrick Grimes expressed that the news was a “big, big surprise” given that it has only been three years since the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) administration assumed office. Nevertheless, he believed that it was a strategic move by the Mottley-led Government as the Opposition and independent parties “pose no threat”.

“Honestly, I don’t think it is going to be 30-0 I think the DLP [Democratic Labour Party] is going to get a few seats,” Grimes told Loop News while adding that the People’s Party for Democracy and Development (PdP) led by the Opposition leader, Bishop Joseph Atherley was “not strong enough or ready yet “.

John Stanford was another citizen who was surprised by the early elections. Standford questioned calling an early election due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of a new variant – omicron, coupled with the industrial relations dispute between Government and the nurses along with the high level of unemployment in his eyes.

“I was quite surprised that a government would call elections in the midst of the challenges ongoing at this point in time,” Stanford remarked.

“People relaxing with their families and then all of a sudden she says she going to address the nation and spring this election on us about two years before the actual date of the next election,” he added.

However, Debra Asgill was one of the few who said she anticipated an early election call given the country’s political climate over the last couple of months.

“I expected it. . . because of the short notice, I guess the other parties will be unprepared for the preparations of this sudden election. It was a sudden move but may the best party win,” Asgill said.