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Barbudans Ready to Send a Message: Council Elections Seen as Referendum on Land and Autonomy
Barbuda – As Barbuda prepares for its 2025 Council elections, residents and political leaders alike are framing the vote as more than a routine democratic exercise. Many Barbudans see it as a defining moment—a referendum on land, autonomy, and the survival of a way of life increasingly under threat.
With five seats up for grabs, the Barbuda People’s Movement (BPM), which currently holds all positions on the Council, is urging voters to reaffirm their support amid what they describe as mounting pressure from the central government to alter the island’s development model and strip the Council of its authority.
“This election is about defending Barbuda—our culture, our land, and our right to decide our future,” said Trevor Walker, Member of Parliament for Barbuda and political leader of the BPM. “The administration in Antigua is aggressively pushing a model based on luxury real estate sales that does not benefit our people. That model threatens our communal land system and our environment.”
At the heart of the tension is the issue of land ownership. Barbudans have long lived under a system of communal land tenure, a practice protected by the Barbuda Land Act and entrenched in the island’s constitutionally recognized local government framework. The BPM and its supporters argue that recent developments—such as concession agreements granted to foreign investors, land takeovers at Cattle Hill, and efforts to bypass the Council—undermine these rights.
“The central government is acting like a real estate agent for Barbuda, carving up the island and offering it to the highest bidder,” said John Mussington, Chairman of the BPM. “This isn’t tourism—it’s displacement. Our land is our culture, our security, our independence.”
Mussington also warned that replacing wetlands and farmlands with gated luxury compounds would increase Barbuda’s vulnerability to climate disasters. “We survived Hurricane Irma because of our healthy environment. If they destroy that for profit, they’re putting all of us at risk,” he said.
The Council elections, held biennially with staggered terms, offer voters an opportunity to select representatives who will directly influence the island’s governance on matters such as agriculture, forestry, and health—areas where the Barbuda Council has exclusive authority under the Barbuda Local Government Act.
Despite legal protections, BPM leaders say they’ve witnessed an erosion of these powers. Concession agreements that override Council leases, the use of law enforcement to remove Council members from disputed lands, and the blocking of infrastructure development led by the BPM have all fueled growing resentment among Barbudans.
“This administration is trying to make the Council redundant,” said Walker. “But our constitution says otherwise. Only the Council can approve changes to the Barbuda Local Government Act. And as long as we hold the majority, we will protect that mandate.”
On the ground, candidates like Jacqueline Frank are calling on voters across political lines to participate. “Everyone here knows what’s at stake,” said Frank. “This is not about party. This is about preserving Barbuda for future generations.”
With just days to go before the polls open, BPM leaders are confident but not complacent. “The people of Barbuda are alert, they are watching, and they are ready to send a message,” Walker said. “A message that Barbuda is not for sale.”
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Autonomy will definitely be the key in this upcoming by-election, because the Barbudan’s have already shown they are more than capable of looking out for themselves rather than the over-reliance of an ABLP government that continually treats Barbudan’s like second class citizens on their own island.
Barbuda’s politicians have shown time and time again that they have better forward thinking ideas for their own inhabitants than what Gaston Browne and the ABLP have to offer.
Furthermore, the voting public have shown many a time that the ABLP are out of touch with them and will continue to treat them like “political pariah’s”, and kick them to the Sideline’s once again.
Autonomy is the way to go Barbudan’s …
NOPE!!!!! Just send d money frpm Antigua, and leave the status quo! Barbudans prefer to jink dem rum, work fu Council for 2 Hrs a day…and collect them pay…
That what they will be votin’ for.
Dun tark!
Barbuda survived Irma because of what?
In developing countries something must give, I just visited the museum in St Loius and saw that the Indians were displaced but there is development that improved their lives. Culture is important but at the same time provisions must be made and compromise must be substituted but not at the expense of lives.
Survive you must. Barbudans will have jobs, better jobs. Better income. Stable economy. Use of your education.
Barbudans for the most part are not against development, it’s the way that it’s being done, without their input. The PM and Labour Party wants to give away huge portions of land to foreigners with very little in it for the Barbudans that’s not development for the country but for the foreign interlopers
@Positive direction
You obviously missed the online session from which this article was derived.
Go look for it on Facebook..
The only ones who refer to Native Americans as Indians says alot about who you are: your knowledge and character.
Your statement “Barbudans will have jobs, better jobs. Better income. Stable economy. Use of your education” is utter nonsense.
You obviously come from the colonial mentality that Barbudans are fighting. What you call better income is dependency minimum wages .
Barbudans net worth is better than Antiguans, who are slaves to their car payments and mortgages
Educational improvements would never exist under the model propsed by the Central Government.
What Barbuda s gave seen from the Central Government is trickory and benign neglect.
Investment,and development is the best thing that ever happened to Barbuda,at least they will have Job opportunities, and be able to better themselves while working….God bless the Gaston Browne administration for what he is doing….
This means that Trevor walker is working with Gaston and PLH to be making this pronouncement, that a tainted Westminster system can be justified to take Barbuda lands, when that election will be heavily monetize by Gaston and the white land thieves, it’s a sacrilege if barbudans give up like that, white people weren’t going to give up fighting people for their lands much less their personal homeland, if barbudans was to go to the white countries PLH come from to get lands it will never happen, they will kill you for control of their sovereignty, Gaston and Arthur nibbs will go down in history as pirates of Barbuda lands and future.
@Just a socialist if that is your view of what is happening in Barbuda, you need to change your name from “just a socialist” to “just a moron”. You can have a job and remain a slave.
@ Patriot, you beat me to it!
But all I would add to @ Just a socialist nonsensical bilge, is that it would have been really good if Gaston Browne had made the same efforts for other sectors to benefit the Barbudan’s as he did for the hotel lobbyists in hospitality, so that the indigenous populace could make the sane economic strides as well.
Barbudan’s are a lot more than pandering to, and being servile to the rich and global elites …
… and if you go to any countries of note, they’ll have other sectors that work equally well – if not better – than the hospitality sector.
Antiguans and Barbudans are led by a jackass
Trevor said the judge was eager to give his ruling because the issue of the land was central to the people of Barbuda. Anyone remembers what the ruling was?
Well well well. I guess the courts do not matter any longer when their judgement doesn’t suites you. It’s only when they rule in your favor than and only than the court judgement matters.
If that is so, then why do we live in a country that is run and ruled by law. Trevor and his entire bunch of decievers need to be taken to court for defying a court judgement. And then they should be jailed. I mean we seen this happening in the USA with Donald Trump as well, but we fail to see that this very same practice is happening right here at home. Our highest court, The Privy Council, has ruled that all the lands in Barbuda belong to the CROWN, which is the Government, yet they hold on to their own facts, which is built on a myth.