DLP women make deposits

Democratic Labour Party (DLP) candidate Irene Sandiford-Garner has suggested the current political climate is turning off women from offering themselves for political office.

With only four women among the 30 Democratic Labour Party’s candidates for the May 24 general elections, Sandiford said yesterday fewer women were getting involved into the political fray for fear of being maligned and having their character assassinated.

She therefore called for a “more civil tone” in the current political debate and “decent and respectful platforms”, while decrying what she described as the “thuggery and disruptive behaviour” she said candidates run the risk of encountering on the campaign trail.

 “I just wish we had more women here with us today. There are only four of us with 30 constituencies and we should have at least had a third of those constituencies contested by women on both sides of the fence,” Sandiford-Garner said, as contenders from the various political parties and independents contesting the elections went to pay their deposits into the Treasury.

The DLP candidate for St Andrew, who turned up with DLP colleagues Dr Esther Byer Suckoo, Verla De Peiza and Kim Tudor, said she believed their chances of capturing the seats they were contesting, were “as good as anyone else”.

Newcomer Tudor, who is contesting the St Michael North seat, indicated she was up the task, citing growth of the economy as an immediate need for which she felt she had the competence to make some input. 

Byer Suckoo said she intends to regain the St George South seat she lost to the Barbados Labour Party’s candidate Dwight Sutherland in 2008, while DePeiza said the exit of United Progressive Party candidate Dr Maria Agard from the Christ Church West race, would not affect her campaign “at all”. (GC)