Barbadian Diaspora Advocates for Parliamentary Representation, Presidential Term Limits, and Electoral Reforms

The Barbadian diaspora should be able to vote and be represented with a seat in Parliament, overseas citizens have told the Parliamentary Reform Commission in its final town hall meeting held Sunday.

But while favouring diasporic representation, prominent political scientist Peter Wickham said he was opposed to allowing overseas Barbadians to vote in elections since they would be making decisions for a country in which they did not live.

The diaspora representatives also called for a four-year presidential term with a two-term limit and the replacement of the first-past-the-post electoral system with a proportional representation system.

They also called for gender parity in the House of Assembly and for systems to be put in place to allow absentee ballots, a suggestion that was also raised with the Constitution Reform Commission earlier this year.

Despite opposing overseas voters, Wickham gave support for the idea of a parliamentary representative for the diaspora, adding that it would “address the issue of giving the diaspora an opportunity to have an input and address the concern of the imbalance that can be created by having large numbers of persons voting locally although they reside externally. It also gives us the opportunity to open up the pool”.

He added: “The idea of one seat in the Lower House for persons in the diaspora is an idea I would totally support. I think it does make a lot of sense.”

But Wickham said that persons in the diaspora casting their votes at an embassy or via the Internet would leave those living in Barbados to deal with the decisions of overseas voters.

“I think that is highly unwise,” he told the commission. Given Barbados’ political reality, it would not be advisable to “just have 200 000 to 300 000 [people from the diaspora] just joining the electoral register and voting from a place they live”, he added.

Wickham instead suggested “some kind of a vehicle where we have a diaspora representative, and we let persons who are residents in the diaspora vote for that person”.

Parliamentary Reform Commission member Ambassador Elizabeth Thompson raised the matter, noting that she was aware there were some Barbadians overseas who were of the opinion that the reform should include putting a system in place where the diaspora could have parliamentary representation.

The point was supported by several participants in the virtual meeting, including High Commissioner to Canada Gline Clarke who suggested a place for the diaspora in the Senate: “I like the idea of diaspora representation. I have raised this matter before and it was frowned on. I think we need to look at not one, but I think we need to have at least two – one for North America and one for Europe and Africa maybe.

“But I would not necessarily put the diaspora representation in the Parliament. I think we could put them in the Senate and the whole notion of how do you appoint senators can be looked at. It can go from 21 to 23 where you have diaspora representation.”

During the meeting, diaspora members also pointed to several other areas for improvement including the need for public representatives to be more accountable, for issues of child abuse to be better addressed and for measures to be put in place to restrict the sale of land to non-Barbadians.

Some of the overseas Barbadians also called for urgent improvements in the island’s road infrastructure and for the government to press ahead with the promise to allow citizenship by descent for a grandchild or great-grandchild. Under the Constitution and the Barbados Citizenship Act, only parents are allowed to offer citizenship by descent to offspring born outside of Barbados.

Ambassador to Brazil Tonika Sealy-Thompson said there were several non-English speakers of Barbadian descent who were eager to return to the island, referring to the historic migration of thousands of Barbadians to the states of Amazonas, Pará and Rondônia to escape grinding poverty at home and join in the rubber boom.

“I have descendants who are now in the sixth and seventh generations and want to engage but they have lost the ability to speak English,” said Sealy-Thompson. “It is an opportunity for Barbadians to come back and move forward with a more international view.”

Sunday’s virtual meeting was the final in the series of the commission’s town hall meetings. It is expected that a full report with recommendations will be delivered to President Dame Sandra Mason during the first quarter of next year. (MM)