THE DEMOCRATIC LABOUR PARTY (DLP) has an election to win, and the ball is in its court.

That's the opinion of noted political scientist Peter Wickham, who also felt that many Barbadians might want to change the current Barbados Labour Party (BLP) Government, but may be for the sake of change alone, since the BLP was seeking an unprecedented fourth consecutive term in office.

Wickham made the comments yesterday on Voice Of Barbados' (VOB) radio talk-show Brass Tacks Sunday, the same day a NATION newspaper-initiated public opinion poll he conducted showed a number of trends leading up to a general election, constitutionally due next year.

"The DLP is being waited upon to demonstrate that it can make a difference to the way in which Barbados is being governed," he told moderator David Ellis. He was part of a studio group which included acting Minister of Labour, Senator Tyrone Barker, and DLP candidate for St Michael North-West, Chris Sinckler.

According to Wickham, results of the poll also indicated that Barbados wanted to know if the DLP had the capacity to run the country's affairs.

"If they [the DLP] can do that successfully, then they will be successful," he added.

He added that according to the poll, the issues Barbadians were most interested in had not changed much since a similar poll was conducted last year.

"The real question is: Can the Democratic Labour Party better react to them?" he asked. "Barbadians continue to be concerned about the cost of living, about the state of the economy, to the extent that we are borrowing too much. These are the things Barbadians were concerned about in the past, and continue to be.

"The fact that people are not willing to turn to the Dems with great force, suggests to me that these are the areas in which the DLP may be coming up short. Can the DLP roll out an economic plan that can address these issues, and do they have the necessary personnel to make these changes?"

He noted marginal decreases in support for the DLP and its leader David Thompson told an interesting story.

Agreeing with Wickham's analysis, Sinckler noted the DLP had succeeded increasing the number of people who were desirous of change, based on the population's consistent critique of Government's policies during the last 12 months.

"This is particularly ominous for the Barbados Labour Party Government," Sinckler said. "People have extensively made up their minds that they want to change the Government. The public is now waiting in anticipation of the Democratic Labour Party's programme, and that will be unveiled in a couple of weeks," he added.

"We are now ready, and there is much for the DLP to be happy about."

Representing the BLP, Barker said it was important to look at the environment in which the poll was conducted.

"The views of the DLP have been aired. They have had massive campaigns in open air, and their views have dominated the media," he said.

Barker went as far as to say that some media were partially responsible for a lack of good BLP news being disseminated to the public, citing that some media houses even refused to inform the public that Barbados now had record low levels of unemployment.

"Any negative news about the economy is amplified," said Barker. "We've had a situation in the last six months there was a concerted campaign by the DLP, where everything negative about the Barbados economy was highlighted, and yet, their numbers have not moved."

Barker said the BLP should take heart that the people of Barbados still did not believe the DLP had any plans for the country.

"The important numbers are that more people now, than six months ago, are saying the DLP still isn't ready to lead Barbados." (BA)