Missing the Point

 

 

What is the price of apathy

Or closing of the eyes to reality:

An induced restriction of visibility

To explain away what we see?

 

A sixty percent participation

In General Election 2018

With the BLP taking all 30 seats:

The first of two scenes.

 

A repeat of the performance

In General Election 2022

With the BLP taking all 30 seats

In the midst of much ado.

 

A forty-five percent turnout

Of the eligible vote

Thus, the question must be asked,

Are we taking note?

 

 

In the midst of celebration

There was no time to note

The whopping fifteen percent drop

In those eligible to vote.

 

What were the reasons

For this record low turnout?

COVID-19 could have been one

Surely, without doubt.

 

That election was called

To acquire a fresh mandate,

Twenty-nine seats were not enough

After one escaped.

 

The DLP lost some ground

But not as much as the BLP

Suggesting it was more than COVID-19;

Perhaps, some apathy.

 

A people increasingly fed-up

With the much political posturing

And no serious attempts being made

At delivering.

 

Fast forward to the present!

May this year, 2025

And that the apparent apathy continues

Should be no surprise.

 

 

Wednesday’s by-election

Could only muster 38 percent,

By the 2022 General Election standard

This is not even decent.

 

A growing disenchantment

Is particularly apparent

And a message to both political parties

Is being sent.

 

It’s a message of protest

By the largest political party:

The electorate who refused to participate

On account of their apathy.

 

Two reasons for this apathy

I will dare to highlight,

You may agree or disagree with me;

That is your right.

 

There are some who believe

They cannot be touched,

They feel safe in their ivory towers

And they have so much.

 

 

 

It can go either way,

It does not matter to them

For they have more than sufficient

To take care of any problem.

 

Then there are the electorate

Who have often switched

But regardless of whom they voted for

There was no fix.

 

Promises never delivered

Led to their apathy

And they withdrew their support

For either party.

 

 

 

We are missing the point

If we still cannot see

That the large majority of voters

Favours neither party.

 

 

 

 

Neither can stir the numbers

Now steep in their apathy

Even though one party has turned

To jump-up and revelry.

 

They have curried the favour

Of many of the youth

But the low turnout in St James North

Says apathy is the proof.

 

It is a “couldn’t care less”

Or “nothing will change”,

And this speaks to a political system

That is undoubtedly deranged.

 

Of more than 8500 electorate

Thirty-two hundred turn out

And the so-called overwhelming win

Causes the BLP to shout.

 

There is nothing exciting

When only 38 percent turns up,

In our good old Barbadian vernacular,

“That really sucks”.

 

 

 

 

So, while Chad and the BLP,

Rejoice over their landslide victory,

Over 5000 of the electorate stayed away

Displaying their apathy.

 

We are missing the point

If this fact we cannot see

That the majority of the electorate

Is voting neither party.

 

Stewart Russell © May 22, 2025