Last night at SJC-JC Fordyce chapel a mayoral debate took place, the first of a series of debates to be held. All five mayoral candidates were present - Mrs. Karen Bodden, Mr. Darrel Bradley, Mr. Stephen Okeke, Mr. Paco Smith, and Mr. Ernesto Torres.
The debate went off without too many interruptions - that is, after a man had to be escorted out of the building for being disruptive during one of the candidate's responses. All the candidates did manage to respond to the questions posed to them, but while some rose to the occasion, others simply could not fully respond in the time allotted.
Mrs. Karen Bodden certainly did rise above the rest as she was declared the winner of this round. At the end of the night we caught up with some of students present to hear their take on it.
We only caught up with a few after most had left: the because event started half hour late - and due to the format it was a monumental bore - so most of the students and audience left before it was done - after all, it went right through dinner-time.
But those students we did catch had interesting perspectives:
Reporter
"Did you think that the mayoral candidate's answered well? Who do you think was the strongest?"
Student #1
"The mayoral candidates answered well. The strongest to me was Mr. Darrell Bradley for the UDP Slate."
Reporter
"Do you think this swayed any of the young voters?"
Student #1
"Yes it did. It did sway a lot of the young voter, because me personally, I'm supposed to go take out my voter's ID. And yes, it did sway me that, yes, I will go and mark my x on the day of the elections."
Reporter
"Based on what you heard, has it swayed you at all, who you would vote for?"
Student #2
"I would definitely vote for Mr. Karen Bodden because she is a well-focused individual. She's a leader; she is not a politician."
Reporter
"Based on what you heard, who do you think stood out the strongest? Who do you think was the strongest speaker, and who do you think won your vote?"
Student #3
"Well, I would say Mrs. Karen Bodden because she exemplifies change. She spoke about a lot of the problems that we are going through right now."
Reporter
"Can you tell me who you think emerged as the strongest mayoral candidate?"
Student #4
"Well, all candidates delivered some very strong points, but I believe that Mrs. Bodden and Mr. Bradley were among the strongest of the group."
Reporter
"Everyone who I've asked seems to in either blue or red, do you think the independent candidates stand a chance?"
Student #4
"I do believe they stand a chance, better than previous elections. I still don't think that they have the ability to win a large margin if the managed to win. I don't think the margin will be large simply because our society is still in that red and blue. You're either red or blue; you can't be in between or with another party."
Reporter
"Based on this, who would you vote for?"
Student #5
"Quite honestly, I would go probably Paco or the PUP mayoral candidate."
Reporter
"You would vote for an independent then."
Student #5
"I would definitely vote for an independent."
