Friday 22 February 2013

Election aftermath



Phew!!  The day after.......the dust has settled....and the Democratic Labour Party have won the election and are still in power.  My representative has won back his seat and will continue to represent my neighbourhood.
The results 16:14 , that is 16 seats to the Democratic Labour Party and 14 seats to the Barbados Labour Party.
Life goes on........the populace have spoken.
Yesterday, my daughter and I traveled to our polling station, and I was pleased to see many older folk as well as lots of younger folk out to vote.
As we stood with our ID cards in hand, I had the opportunity to chat with other voters in the line, who were high -spirited and  voiced their concerns about the outcome. Some of the young ones were headed home to sleep, so that they would be up later to "PARR-TEEE" if their party won. The older ones just wanted to make sure the country would be in good hands after the votes were counted.  But to each his/her own.
I stayed up until 1.15am and at that point the DLP were in the lead....my bed was calling my name.
Woke up today to a new day, but yet no different from yesterday.
What remains to be seen, is how we will chart our course to ride out these harsh economic times.
The blogs, and the political pundits and all the die-hard party afficionados will have much to say in the coming weeks, but it all boils down to the fact that we need caring and trustworthy members of parliament to run this country.  Our beloved island of Barbados. 
I wish them all well. 
So what happens now?

"When all of the results are known the Governor General will usually invite the leader of the party winning the most seats in the House of Assembly to be Prime Minister and to form a Government.
The Prime Minister will appoint several members of his party for both Houses to become members of the Cabinet.

The Cabinet will consist of the Prime Minister and not fewer than five other Ministers. Ministers are appointed by the Governor General, acting in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister, from among the members of the two Houses. The Governor General may also appoint Parliamentary Secretaries to assist Ministers in the discharge or their functions.
The Opposition is made up of the party that wins the second-largest number of seats in Parliament, and forms a "shadow" cabinet poised to assume power at any time during the ruling government's five-year term.
The Governor-General appoints as Leader of the Opposition the person who, in his/her judgment, is best able to command the support of a majority of those members of the House who do not support the Government.

The New Parliament
A few days after the general election the House of Assembly will assemble in preparation for the new Parliament to begin. All MPs must be sworn in by taking an oath of allegiance or making an affirmation, and must sign the official register. The Speaker and Deputy Speaker are customarily selected by a vote of the siting members of parliament.


THE SENATE
The Senate has 21 members, all appointed by the Governor-General , 12 on the advice of the Prime Minister, two on the advice of the Leader of the Opposition, and seven in the Governor-General’s discretion.
Senators may also be appointed as Ministers or Parliamentary Secretaries. The Senate meets chiefly when there is business from the House of Assembly. The Senate is referred to as the Upper House."


This is not a political blog, but I will close by saying that I am so happy that it is all over. 
Life goes on.

4 comments:

  1. Is your Parliament based on the British system? It sounds very much like ours with a Governor General etc. We have Federal, State and local government. - far far far too many politicians.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, our politics is based on the British system, since we were once a British colony.
      We have a Prime Minister, a Governor General and many politicians who make up the House of Assembly and the Senate.
      Parliament meets every Tuesday, and anyone can go sit in the gallery to be a part of the proceedings.

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  2. To answer Missy's point the Barbadian and Australian and New Zealand systems all share a two-house commonality with the UK's system but have developed along slightly different lines. Virginia has described the Barbadian two-house system and as I understand it (and Virginia will correct me if I'm wrong) Barbados still has first past the post voting. I think that Australia's bicameral system embodies parts of the UK's Parliament (in process) and parts of the US Congressional system (in structure) and there are systems of proportional representation and compulsory voting to the Senate and House of Representatives.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're correct GB, we do have an Upper House, and a Lower House and the first past the post voting.
      What is strange this time, is that the winning party usually announces a bank holiday the following day after elections, but that has not happened this time around.

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