Prime Minister of St Lucia Stephenson King has congratulated Mara Thompson, the wife of the late Barbados prime minister David Thompson, for regaining the St John seat he held for the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP).
“The Government and people of St Lucia express our pride in this achievement, which in itself epitomizes the spirit of regionalism,” King said in a statement today.
He said Thompson’s election demonstrates a level of maturity by the Barbadian electorate and an embrace of the ideals of regional unity, which was advocated by former prime ministers Owen Arthur and Thompson.
“Mrs Thompson’s election to the Parliament of Barbados in such a convincing manner symbolises the historically close relationships between the people of Barbados and St Lucia,” King noted.
Mrs. Thompson, polled 4, 613 votes to a mere 553 received by Hudson Griffith of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) in a by-election that Prime Minister Fruendel Stuart said was also a referendum on the performance of the ruling party that came to office in 2008.
Preliminary figures indicate that Mrs. Thompson, whose St. Lucian nationality had emerged as an issue in the campaign, received 89 per cent of the 5, 166 votes cast. She is the daughter of the late Henry Giraudy, one of the founding members of the ruling United Workers Party (UWP) here.
King said that both St. Lucian were looking forward with great expectation to her tenure in Parliament, adding that “the advent of Mrs. Thompson within the political landscape of Barbados will no doubt serve to further cement the close ties between the people of our two countries and indeed to advance the goal of Caribbean unity.
“We are indeed one family, Barbados and St. Lucia – the entire Caribbean. The Government and people of St. Lucia salute Mrs. Mara Thompson as a proud St. Lucian native, a proud Barbadian citizen and a proud Caribbean woman,” King added.
