Swearing in of Barbuda Council members creates controversy

0
1929
- Advertisement -

The swearing in of members of the Barbuda Council, which occurred yesterday, was surrounded by controversy.
Leader of the Barbuda People’s Movement (BPM) Trevor Walker claimed that the Barbuda Council was tainted by politics as he
and his colleagues left the meeting where a vote for committee members took place.
“We realise this thing is running a partisan way; we are not going to tolerate that,” Walker said in an OBSERVER media interview.
“This thing is highly political and Barbuda Council was not set up to be that way. Even if we have operated like that over the years, even if we didn’t get chairman or deputy chairman [we expected to] be included on the various committees. We are very disappointed so we left the meeting.”
Walker said that no elected member of the BPM was voted to sit on any committee on the council and he believes that this was wrong.
“We noticed that all the committees went to the Antigua Labour Party members of the council. We protested that the election overwhelmingly gave us a mandate. We got the popular vote and we won the most seats we won five out of the nine,” he said.
He said the members of the BPM have asked the council to reevaluate this decision.
“We are giving them some time to reconsider their position so we can move forward with the business of the people. Give them the benefit of the doubt,” he said.
However, Minister of Barbuda Affairs Arthur Nibbs, who has the deciding vote on the Barbuda Council refuted Walker’s comments and told OBSERVER media that the process that took place was democratic.
(More in today’s Daily Observer)

- Advertisement -