A Time of Change in the Caribbean

Update #3

St. Philip South just called for Adriel Brathwaite of the DLP.
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Well it's all over bar the shouting right now - actually I just saw coverage from the Lodge School in St. John and plenty shouting going on there. :)

Barbados has joined the majority of our Caribbean neighbours who have voted in the last year and some in changing their administration. So the scorecard now is 4-1 - Barbados, Jamaica, Bahamas, St. Lucia changed and Trinidad stayed the same (thanks to the opposition?).

It looks like it will be 19-11 to the DLP, according to my boyfriend who is manning our official scorecard.(I'm taking down the raw data).

Seats are still being called officially.

St. James South just called for Donville Inniss of the DLP
St.Michael North West - Chris Sinckler - DLP
St. Michael South East- Hamilton Lashley - BLP
St. Michael West - Michael Carrington - DLP
Christ Church East Central - Ronald Jones - DLP
Christ Church West Central - Stephen Lashley - DLP
St. John - David Thompson (like duh - only by about 4000-odd votes)- DLP
St. Philip West - David Estwick - DLP
St. Michael East - Kenneth Best - DLP
St. James North - Rawle Eastmond - BLP
St. James Central - George Hutson - DLP
St. Lucy - Denis Kellman - DLP
St. Peter - Owen Arthur - BLP
St. Michael North East - Mia Mottley - BLP
St. Michael North - Ronald Toppin -BLP
Christ Church West - William Duguid BLP

So how many is that thus far?
DLP - 17
BLP - 7
Not called as yet but the likely results are:
St. Michael South (DLP)
Christ Church East (DLP)
St. Joseph (BLP- but narrowly - Dale Marshall is only ahead by 44 votes and a recount has been demanded)
St. George North (DLP)
St. Philip South (not sure about this one - I have only heard two boxes called thus far and it is close)
St. Andrew (DLP - but again I am not totally sure - George Payne won strongly in some boxes but Irene Sandiford-Garner is actually leading if you tally all the boxes called thus far).

(Live results here)

Hmmm...it is looking like you could actually call it a landslide. By my estimation, it could end up as 22-8 or maybe 21-9.

To be honest, I'm not thrilled about that. I have been heartened by these election results because I thought it was a good sign for democracy after having an enfeebled Opposition for so long. The fact that people trusted our choices enough to change from one party to the other was positive. But most of all, I was looking forward to having a robust Opposition to keep the government honest and for things to be more even again. A small Opposition is not good in my humble opinion.