LAST WEEK LOCAL elections were held in the island of Barbuda to elect six out of nine persons to the their Council, which manages the affairs of that island with a population of roughly 1 000 voters.
The “government” of Barbuda comprises this council which is led by the MP, elected nationally and is comparatively less complex and devolved than arrangements that manage islands like Nevis or Tobago.
At the same time, Barbuda’s Council arrangement offers more in terms of governance than is the case for Carriacou or Petit Martinique which are subsumed under Grenada’s government entirely. The comparative strength of the Barbuda arrangement is an interesting issue in and of itself, but is not the central focus of this article.
Suffice to say that the complexity of an island’s government is generally reflective of the level of economic activity on an island, which also impacts on the level of political interest.
In anticipation of last week’s election, CADRES was asked to conduct a public opinion survey on that island which was seminal in terms of a client’s interest in the outcome there.
This research initiative preceded an election campaign in pursuit of the six seats on the council that was unprecedented in terms of its size and raises the question of why the heightened political interest? This is a question to which there is no obvious answer since the island is not resource-rich in the conventional sense.
There is no oil or promise of any valuable mineral other than the Barbuda sand and the unique pink sand beaches. Interestingly enough, there is also not an independence movement to speak of there either as is the case with islands like Nevis, although Barbudans are fiercely patriotic.
There is, however, a glaring level of comparative underdevelopment and this is perhaps one of the issues that both sides of the political divide can agree on. The developmental preferences are debatable but there is no question that development is priority one, two and three on that island, consistent with the key findings of the CADRES survey.
Barbuda has a small airport and limited port facilities, which impacts negatively on its economy and cost of living. There is no direct importation and since everything must be sourced from Antigua, the cost of living there is comparatively higher, much to the anguish of the local population, the majority of whom are employed by the Barbuda council that has struggled to pay wages in the recent past.
Historically, the tourism industry did well in Barbuda which boasts miles of almost virgin beaches with the uniquely coloured pink sand that a visitor can enjoy practically alone. Crime levels on the island are also astoundingly low and the island has played host in the past to celebrities like Princess Diana after whom one of their beaches is named.
More recently, the major tourist resort there has closed and there are current and controversial plans to reopen this resort under the rubric “Paradise Found”. This major initiative has been backed by a comprehensive development plan of the Gaston Browne administration which include a new airport terminal, runway expansion, port expansion and road construction which forms the basis of a plan for significant economic activity on the island, the likes of which has not been seen before.
This level of interest from the mainland coupled with the political resources to drive it should form the basis of a “political slam dunk” for the ABLP, especially as one considers the fact that so little has happened there developmentally for decades.
Just prior to the last national election, the ABLP gained control of the Barbuda Council in what appeared to be a clear indicator of a national swing towards the ABLP that was reflected in the 2014 election.
The most recent national CADRES poll demonstrated that this level of interest in the ABLP has not waned since 2014 and moreover there was good support in Barbuda for the general developmental direction of the island.
The results of the most recent election do reflect continued support for the ABLP. However, it is equally clear that the evolution of a further massive swing towards the ABLP did not materialise, prompting my assessment that any further growth in ABLP support there is likely to be a flower of “slow and tender growth”.
If the results of the recent poll, along with supportive conversations on the ground, are taken in tandem, Barbudans are generally more inclined towards the ABLP and see a better future for the island with that organisation, than the BPM which is aligned to the opposition UPP that is struggling nationally.
The “political slam dunk” was; however, countered by a curious tend in the politics of smaller islands that I have previously seen in places like Sint Bart, Saba and Sint Eustatius, which is a polarisation based on family names and connections.
Certainly, blood lines are more persuasive in these places than political lines and this is reflected in the voting patterns that reflect a familial selectivity more than support for either political party.
Against this background, future election strategies for both parties must either contemplate or mitigate this novel factor which I find to be a most fascinating feature of Caribbean politics, and moreover, local election results cannot be seen as a useful gauge of national popularity as is often the case.
Peter W. Wickham is a political consultant and a director
of Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES).
Email: peter.w.wickham@gmail.com
