Barbados Election: Can There Be True Democracy When Voters’ Names Are On Their Ballots?

Barbados Election Process Allows Government To Identify Citizens’ Votes

Now before we have the first silly comment that Barbados does not require that a voter’s name be written on the back of the ballot, we will state that it is the voter’s National Identification Number (NID) that is on the back of the ballot.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is for all intents and purposes the same as writing the voter’s name on the ballot. It is even better because although two voters might share the same name, they will never have the same NID.

I remember reading an old copy of LIFE Magazine from the 1946 or so post-war era. (I tried to find it online, but couldn’t. Maybe one of our readers will be more successful.) The article showed occupying governments teaching young German students about democracy. After being raised under a German totalitarian regime, the teenagers couldn’t understand why in post-war West Germany they were not required to write their names on their voting ballots as had been the case when any “voting” had been done in their time – even voting in school for a football captain, etc.

They had trouble grasping the concept of how secret voting supports a free democracy.

I am disturbed that more Barbadians are not concerned about the integrity of our flawed system of voting.

David at Barbados Underground has written an excellent article on this subject. Well worth your time…

Barbados Underground: Barbados Electoral System Comes Under The Microscope

Jury Picking or Jury Rigging? A Barbados Citizen Makes An Observation About Our Courts…

The following comment was posted back on October 12, 2007 and just came to our attention. The writer was commenting on the Barbados Free Press article Barbados Police Given Blank, Pre-Signed Search Warrants By Corrupt, Lazy Judiciary…

A lady friend of mine who was recently on jury duty told me that she noticed something very strange with juries. A select group of jurymen (and women) were constantly being picked to sit on various cases. When speaking to some of them she realised that these same people were career jurymen, by that I mean that for years they were being called upon to sit on juries, the same people over and over again.

The conclusion we drew from this situation was the fact that these same people would render the verdicts that the Prosecutors wanted. How is that for Justice! For the whole of the Assizes my lady friend was not selected once. Does anyone else have any more information on this?

(You can read the original comment and BFP’s article here.)

What Is The Truth About Barbados Juries?

Do we have a select group of people who serve on juries or are ALL jury members drawn at random from the general population?

Let’s hear what folks have to say about this important foundation of our justice system.

“What Crazy Looks Like” Moves To WordPress – With Fox News Greta Van Susteren, CNN’s Political Ticker And Other WordPress Switchers

Many Established Bloggers Switching To WordPress

I don’t know much about blogging software other than WordPress, but lately I see many established bloggers moving from Blogger and TypePad to WordPress.com.

Most recently our friend Eemanee of What Crazy Looks Like switched to WordPress.

Eemanee… you are in good company as Fox News’ broadcaster Greta Van Susteren just moved her blog to WordPress.com too. CNN’s “Political Ticker” blog also switched a while ago to WordPress.

Barbados Free Press #44 Most Popular Out Of Over 2 Million WordPress Blogs – Worldwide!

There are now over 2 million blogs hosted at WordPress.com and tonight Barbados Free Press is the #44 most popular blog worldwide. (That changes every hour, but we are usually in the Top 100 blogs worldwide. You can check the WordPress stats here)

Right now, Greta Van Susteren’s blog is #5 and CNN’s Political Ticker is #2.

Still, I don’t think we should be too unhappy at being #44 out of 2,025,017 WordPress blogs worldwide!

Barbados Nation Newspaper Pronounces The Election Will Be “Clean” With No Cheating – But Won’t Print Ronja Juman, Public Prosecutor Scandal!

Besides being the largest circulation daily newspaper in Barbados that is printed on paper*, the Nation News is the unofficial propaganda arm of the ruling BLP Government, so we shouldn’t be surprised that the obedient staff at the Nation are already declaring the yet-to-be-held vote to be “clean” with no cheating.

This is despite allegations of vote buying, ballot stuffing and other serious crimes in the last two elections – allegations that the Nation News ignored at the time and still ignores.

You will also notice that the Nation News has been full of “good news” pronouncements for the past few weeks to prepare the electorate for the coming vote. Not a word about the shots fired at the home of a DLP candidate. Not a word about the feces smeared on the door of a candidate’s office.

Yup… anything at all to get the government re-elected. That is the marching order by those fine editors and cooperative journalists over at the Nation News…

The stakes may be high; but not so high as to cause our people to resort to acts of public disorder or at least indiscretion. We know enough of the contenders for office to feel confident that this will be another clean campaign, conducted at the highest level of probity and professionalism, as both parties’ candidates appeal not just to the minds, but to the hearts – and, indeed to the consciences of the electorate.

That is our proud record which we must preserve with pride by keeping its values intact.

… from that disgusting government propaganda rag The Nation News editorial Not So Surprising.

Two Words Show That Barbados Citizens Cannot Trust The Nation News – “Ronja Juman”

Photo: Corrupt Director Of Public Prosecutions Charles Leacock

In the early hours Tuesday, December 19, 2006 – a few days before Christmas – officers of the Royal Barbados Police Force descended like a gang of wild thugs upon the sleeping family of Mrs. Ronja (Ronya) Juman.

Her offense was not having paid back-rent to her landlord – who happens to be Charles Leacock, Queens Counsel, and the Director of Public Prosecutions for the sovereign nation of Barbados. One of the most powerful men on the island, Mr. Leacock arranged to have officers of the Royal Barbados Police Force collect his back rent from Mrs. Juman – in particular a corrupt police officer named Sgt. Paul Vaughan.

Sgt. Vaughan used a “pre-signed” BLANK SEARCH WARRANT to raid the Juman family home, drag her off in the middle of the night to be strip searched and have her vagina searched – over back rent. She was then sent home terrorized with “no charges for now” – with the admonition that she had better pay her back rent to the DPP.

When she couldn’t come up with the back-rent, she was criminally charged by police. At her “trial”, she wasn’t allowed a lawyer, the judge falsely modified court records and the Director of Public Prosecutions acted both as a private witness and in his official capacity.

If that isn’t a major story of judicial and police corruption in Barbados, I don’t know what is!

You don’t have to believe us… because the court documents are still posted on the internet for anyone to see (link here and here)

Barbados Media Refuses To Cover A Major Story Of Judicial & Police Corruption

The Nation News and the other Barbados media are fully aware of the Ronja (Ronya) Juman story. Our inside sources tell us that journalists from the Nation and CBC have downloaded copies of all the court documents from Barbados Free Press and another website. We are also told that the story of the Director of Public Prosecutions’ back rent has been “killed” by senior management at both those organisations.

We’re talking PRE-SIGNED BLANK SEARCH WARRANTS, signed blank by Justice of the Peace Douglas N Burgess and given to the police to fill in and use as they want in their investigations…

The Ronja Juman blank, pre-signed search warrant has been posted on the internet for months and the “professional” Barbados media hasn’t breathed a word of the story.

That same “professional” Barbados news media is now telling the public that our elections are “clean” and this one will be no different.

You can choose to believe whatever you want – but if the news media won’t print a major story like the Ronja Juman – Director of Public Prosecutions scandal, what makes you think that you can trust your Barbados news media for election coverage?

* Barbados Free Press is Barbados’ largest circulation electronic news media. The Nation News is Barbados’ largest circulation printed-on-paper daily newspaper. For details see BFP’s article One Source: Barbados Free Press Online Readership Stats Higher Than All Other Barbados News Sources!