THIS TIME, Dale Marshall got home with more than enough room to spare.
If only the rest of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) could say the same.
The BLP incumbent didn’t have to endure the nerves of yet another close margin of victory after retaining his St Joseph seat by almost 400 votes over Democratic Labour Party first-timer Dennis Holder.
It was a scene straight out of Mardi Gras when Marshall walked out of St Joseph Primary School just before 1 a.m. to raucous cheers, whistles and the sounds of vuvuzelas with the announcement of a much-anticipated win.
“This victory is not really my victory. It is a culmination of consistent hard work and planning by an amazing team,” said Marshall, flanked by son Kobe at the counting station in St Joseph Primary.
“This is fantastic to say the least that I increased my margin significantly and that always means that the constituents are more than satisfied with my performance.”
The proof of that came at exactly 12:55 p.m. when presiding officer Charles Bostic announced that Marshall received 2850 votes to Holder’s 2452 after nearly five hours worth of counting.
He margin proved a lot more significant than the previous two Marshall won with, following close calls in 2003 and 2008 where he edged Randal Rouse by 79 and 44 votes respectively.
“To be able to increase the margin in this way is perhaps the best vote of confidence I could ask for,” reasoned Marshall.
“I think that being in Opposition over the last five years has allowed me the benefit of a greater level of interaction with my constituents. I’ve had more time to do a lot more meaningful things with them. But also it has a lot to do with the hard economic times that Barbadians are facing.
“I’m not surprised though because I feel it is a question of hard work,” he added. (JM)
