Barbados Labour Party takes landslide elections victory; gets first female Prime Minister

Last Updated on Friday, 25 May 2018, 7:18 by Denis Chabrol

Reproduced from Barbados Today

The Barbados Labour Party (BLP) will form the next government, led by its first female prime minister, and based on unofficial results, it will do so without any official opposition.

The BLP demolished the DIP, taking all 30 seats, resulting in the country being without a parliamentary opposition.

Counting continued into the early hours of this morning, but Democratic Labour Party (DLP) leader Freundel Stuart conceded defeat and the BLP’s Roebuck Street headquarters erupted in celebration as prime minister-designate Mia Mottley, the island’s first female leader, delivered her victory speech just before 4 a.m.

While the 52-year-old Mottley acknowledged there would be celebration, she said it was not a time to gloat but to unite the country to take it forward, and she reiterated her commitment to keeping the BLP’s campaign promises.

Pointing out that today was pay day, she told jubilant supporters that she wanted to give Barbadians a “thanksgiving celebration” this weekend.

She announced that all schools would be closed today, and that with the exception of supermarkets and banks, she had advised businesses to close at 1 p.m.

Mottley said a Cabinet will be appointed by Monday.

The Venezuela-based Telesur reported that

The crushing victory for the BLP means that its political leader Mia Amor Mottley will be sworn in as Barbados’ first female Prime Minister since the country gained independence from Britain in 1966.

Mottley, 52, becomes Barbados’ eight Prime Minister and the fifth female head of government in the English speaking the Caribbean joining the likes of the late Dame Eugenia Charles of Dominica, Janet Jagan of Guyana, Portia Simpson Miller in Jamaica and Kamla Persad Bissessar in Trinidad and Tobago.