Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Barbadians will have five political parties from which to choose when they go to the polls in the next general election, constitutionally due next year.
This morning the United Progressive Party (UPP) led by former Barbados Labour Party (BLP) senator Lynette Eastmond, announced its presence during a press conference at the Courtyard by Marriott.
The UPP now joins the Barbados Integrity Movement and Solutions Barbados on the expanding list of fringe parties seeking to reshape the political landscape dominated by the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) and the Opposition BLP.
It is also the second political party featuring disenchanted BLP members to have sprung seemingly out of nowhere in recent weeks, behind BIM to which former Member of Parliament for St Michael South Central David Gill, unsuccessful candidate for St John Hutson Griffith and Sylvan Greenidge, the former personal assistant to then Prime Minister Owen Arthur, have been linked.
Eastmond herself had also been linked with BIM before she ruled herself out.
The growing list of BLP defectors involved in the new political movements has given rise to speculation that Arthur and expelled BLP parliamentarian Dr Maria Agard may play a role in one of these entities.
However, the former Minister of Commerce, Consumer Affairs and Business Development in an Arthur-led BLP administration from 2003 to 2008 declined to comment on the possibility of either or both joining the ranks.
