Barbados PM hails governing party's landslide election victory
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Loading... - Benjamin Grant
- 24 Jan 2022
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Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has hailed a landslide victory in the Caribbean nation’s first general election since it became a republic last year, as preliminary results showed her governing party won every seat in the national legislature.
Mottley in December called the snap election for January 19, saying it would help promote unity as the island nation battled the coronavirus pandemic, which has damaged its tourist economy.
Preliminary results released on Thursday indicated Mottley’s Barbados Labor Party (BLP) had secured all 30 seats in the House of Assembly, the lower house of the island’s parliament.
“We stand today on the morning of the 20th of January confident that the people have spoken with one voice – decisively, unanimously and clearly,” Mottley told cheering supporters at the headquarters of the BLP.
The victory gives Mottley, the nation’s first female leader, a second five-year term as prime minister. A majority of 16 seats was required for a win, and Mottley achieved the same sweep when her party won elections in 2018.
“We want to thank each and every one of the people of Barbados for the confidence that they continue to repose in us,” she said in the victory speech, which was broadcast online.
The vote came after Barbados officially became a republic in late November, replacing the British monarch as its head of state and severing its last remaining colonial bonds nearly 400 years after the first English ships arrived on the island.
The former British colony had elected Sandra Mason as its first-ever president, and she replaced Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. Read More…
