Prime Minister Freundel Stuart was sworn into office on Saturday a few hours after the island’s sixth prime minister David Thompson succumbed to pancreatic cancer.
Stuart, who served as attorney general and deputy prime minister in Thompson’s cabinet, said his new look administration would be sworn in at 3.00 pm (local time) on Saturday. He told reporters he did not envisage any changes to the Cabinet that had been re-shuffled last month as Prime Minister Thompson said he was seeking to reduce his work load.
“The Constitution makes clear that on the appointment or reappointment of a Prime Minister the ministries all become vacant and therefore all the ministers who have held office up to the time of Mr. Thompson’s death will now have to be sworn in again…because they are no longer in Mr. Thompson’s cabinet but the Cabinet of the new prime minister.
“I don’t contemplate any immediate adjustments, I think we have to get through this very difficult period first and therefore the harder side of politics will have to take a back seat for the time being as we deal with this very much softer side”.
The Prime Minister said that attorney Adrian Brathwaite has been sworn in as a minister and will be appointed as Attorney General.
Stuart said that the island had gone into official mourning and that Foreign Affairs Minister Maxine McClean will head the government committee working with the Thompson family to plan his state funeral.
“You will be hearing more about the arrangements over the next few days, but as things stand now the country is in a state of mourning, flags will be flown at half mast and all the other courtesies usually extended to persons in Mr. Thompson’s position will be extended,” he said.
“You can expect that over the next week or so there will be a period of mourning in Barbados as we decide on the date for the funeral,” he added.
Stuart said that the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) that Thompson led to victory in the 2008 general election “is in a state of grief as indeed the nation having regard the fact that the Honourable David Thompson has been so critical to public life in Barbados ever since his school days…”
He said that Thompson had battled “manfully” to deal with his illness, “but of course those challenges overwhelmed him this morning …and he succumbed to death.
“I want to take this opportunity to extend heartfelt condolences to his bereaved relatives, particularly his wife and three daughters who stood by him through this long and challenging period and who must be feeling the long effects of that long period…as they watched his seemingly…inevitable decline”.
The new prime minister said he is certain that Thompson would not have wanted the country to spend “all of our time looking back.
“He was the kind of person who felt that the future of Barbados is much more important than the life any individual including his life but of course we who survive him think that we owe certain duties and courtesies having regard that he held the highest office in the land”.
