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Barbadian Prime Minister, Freundel Stuart, has come under severe criticism, for not announcing a general election date, which according to the country's should take place in May.
In a letter issued Sunday, Mia Mottley, the country's Opposition Leader and head of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP), called on Stuart to "stop procrastinating" and announce a date for the elections.
“Our beloved Barbados is literally crumbling and grinding to a halt as a result of your tardiness, indecisiveness, and inertia. While you refuse to set a date for elections, every artery in the country’s body is malfunctioning, and many of our people are suffering as a consequence," she pleaded in the letter. "Prime Minister, this is no laughing matter. Your silence on critical national issues is offensive to many. Projects have been stalled because of the uncertainty."
In her letter, Mottley shed further light on the Caribbean island's crisis, stating: "Our farmers are crying out, retailers and Bajans all over are choking to death under the strain of the NSRL [National Social Responsibility Levy]. Hoteliers are not making ends meet; trade unions are on their knees begging for action on matters affecting their members, who are buckling after no salary increase for eight years."
"Prime Minister, our country is drifting, and our people are suffering. Our institutions are reeling... I am pleading with you, in the name of all that is good and righteous, call the election and stop the hemorrhage," she said.
Peter Wickham, a political scientist from the Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES), which is based in Barbados, explained the constitutionality of the Prime Minister's failure to announce the election date in an interview with TeleSUR Wednesday.
"It is the first time in the regional history that a parliament has dissolved itself through an act of the prime minister and the prime minister is yet to announce the date of the election date... The 90 day period is usually used in the case of an emergency. The problem is that we are in limbo and we don't have the parliament, and we don't know when the election will be held," Wickham told teleSUR.
Although the prime minister's five-year term, which began February 21, 2013, expired months ago. He hasn't clarified details about the election and has shown no signs of doing so soon.
According to Article 62 of the Barbadian Constitution: "After every dissolution of Parliament, the Governor-General shall issue writs for a general election of members of appointment the House of Assembly returnable within ninety days from that dissolution."
Wickham called the move a "folly" and a gross error in judgment on the part of the Stuart administration, as it would also reflect poorly on Stuart’s party, the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), and may harm the party when campaigning and speaking with prospective voters, Barbados Today reported.
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