Prime Minister Mia Mottley on Saturday announced that a by-election will be held on November 11 in the constituency of St. George North.
Nomination Day has been set for October 26.
The Prime Minister made the announcement on Saturday afternoon during a hastily called press conference.
The race is one for the seat left vacant by Gline Clarke who announced two weeks ago that he was stepping down to take up the role as Barbados’ High Commissioner to Canada.
So far, four of five parties have named their candidates, with Floyd Reifer for the Democratic Labour Party, Senator Toni Moore for the Barbados Labour Party, the People’s Party for Democracy and Development said it will announce its candidate on Sunday while leader of Solutions Barbados, Grenville Phillips II, has already announced he would be its candidate and Ambrose Grosvenor will represent the United Progressive Party.
Meanwhile, for the first time in the country’s political history, candidates in a by-election will face off in televised debates.
According to the Prime Minister, the debates will be held as fewer political rallies were expected due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I would like to say to you that this is an unusual election because it comes in the middle of a global pandemic and to that extent, we are asking not just our own selves as a party, but all parties and all candidates and all constituents to recognize it is not business as usual.
“We recognize that there will likely be far less political rallies than would normally be the situation in an election. There will be some and I think that we have managed to be able to work out the spacing issue, but it also means there will be challenges in terms of the intensity of interaction,” Mottley said.
CMC
