Barbados Labour Party Candidates – 2018 vs 2022

UPDATE 1: Having received reliable information on the birth year of Senator The Hon. Kay (she is 54, not 55), I have updated The Table. No updates were required to the Discussion Points and the Age Distribution Chart.

This is a revised post to the original one that was made on January 11 (and removed shortly thereafter, as this post has been significantly expanded). The initial idea behind the first iteration of this post was to look at who – within the Barbados Labour Party – was returning in 2022 vs. 2018. The first post also included information on the gender of candidates. This post, i.e., January 18, and the Table below, looks at who is returning vs. who isn’t, gender, age and constituency information.

Before we get to The Table, a few words on my methodology:

1. Names from 2018 and 2022 were pulled from the BLP’s 2018 and 2022 election manifestos respectively. The Manifestos themselves were obtained from the BLP website and the website of Caribbean Elections.
2. Ages were calculated based on DOB information from the Preliminary Voter’s List which was published online, and then removed a few days later.
3. Constituency Registered information was also pulled from The Voter’s List.
4. Age is important to me. I’m curious about the age of politician’s vs. the age of electors in the constituencies they run for. As such, I spent considerable time looking at names from the 2022 manifesto, and then finding that name in The Voter’s List. This was not always straight-forward. Some people share the same first and last name (or some politician’s use a middle name as their “first” name). To address this, I also cross-referenced the website of the Parliament of Barbados (which included initials, et cetera), and I checked the website of Caribbean Elections. These extra steps helped me identify specific individuals in the Voter’s List. However, I could not locate a record for Senator The Hon. Kay McConney at the time of this post. As such, I calculated her age (55) based on information found on the Caribbean Elections website. David Ishmael also presented a minor problem. The only Davidson Ishmael in the Voter’s List is a “Davidson Ian Ishmael.” I therefore assumed that they were one and the same, and that his age = 35. My assumption was also bolstered by the fact that Constituency he was running for = Constituency he was Registered in (however, there are cases where some politician’s run in constituencies other than the ones they are registered in).

With the methodology out of the way, we can now look at The Table – sorted by Age – below (click to enlarge).

Discussion and Analysis

1. Of the thirty candidates presented in 2018, six (20%) of them will not be returning in 2022 (highlighted in yellow).
2. In terms of gender, six out of thirty candidates were female in 2018 (20%). For 2022, this has increased to eight (26%).
3. The oldest candidate is Trevor Prescod (73), the youngest is Davidson Ishmael (35).
4. The oldest male candidate is Trevor Prescod (73).
5. The oldest female candidate is Cynthia Forde (69).
6. The youngest male candidate is Davidson Ishmael (35).
7. The youngest female candidate is Marsha Caddle (43).
8. The average age of all candidates is 52 years.
9. 13 candidates, out of 30, are running for constituencies for which they are registered to vote in (based on the Voter’s List).
10. Two candidates are in their 30’s.
11. Ten candidates are in their 40’s
12. Eleven candidates are in their 50’s.
13. Six candidates are in their 60’s.
14. One candidate is in his 70’s.

Time permitting, I will look at DLP candidates 2018 vs. 2022 in a separate post.

Good luck to all candidates, those associated with parties and those that are running as independents!

caribbeansignal.com is the personal blog of Amit Uttamchandani. The information presented here does not represent the views, beliefs, opinions, et cetera, of Amit’s employer’s (past or present).