The people of Barbados will head to the polls on January 19th in a snap election, to elect a new government, just three years after the last election on May 24, 2018. Constitutionally, the next election is due in 2023.
Prime Minister Mia Mottley made the announcement of the snap election on Monday night, using her social media accounts. Nomination day has been set for January 3rd.
In a national broadcast, the first woman to head a government in Barbados, said she has advised President Sandra Mason to dissolve parliament with immediate effect.
In the last general elections Mottley led the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) to a commanding victory over the then ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) sweeping all 30 seats in the Parliament.
But since then, one of the legislators, Bishop Joseph Atherley, left to become Opposition Leader.
In a 37-minute address to the nation, Mottley listed her government’s economic and financial achievements and said the economy was recovering despite the effects caused by the Covid-19 pandemic to the tourism industry.
“I need for us to unite around a common cause, unite behind a single government, unite behind a single leader,” she said, pledging to give support to whoever wins the election.
“We have, my friends, a country to build out, and we have a people to mold,” she told Barbadians. “Let us go on confident that if we can do so united as a people, there is no major challenge that can knock us down for the count fully.”
But the announcement immediately drew criticism from President of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), Verla De Peiza. De Peiza said: “It is clear that the government of the day has succumbed to feelings of panic and that the nation’s first call, which is its people’s safety, has been set aside to pursue selfish ends which expose our people to great harm and possible death.”
The DLP leader said: “There is no compelling argument for an election to be called 17 months out, except to be self-serving. This is not what we expect of sound leadership,” Questioning the economic progress of Barbadians since 2018, she asked whether they are better off than 2018 or finding it easier to feed their families.
De Peiza added that this was the time to vote for a Government that would put the people first and her party’s “rejuvenated, young and committed team is best placed to take this country forward.”
In anticipation of the criticism, and to answer those who suggested that she was power-hungry, Prime Minister Mottley mentioned her party’s overwhelming majority in parliament and noted she still had much of her first term left to serve.
“Were I motivated solely by the need to survive,” she said, “we could bask, my friends, in the glory of a 29-1 parliament and ride COVID out for the next 18 months.”
Barbados recently became a republic nation when the the island officially cut ties with Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II on November 30, 2021.
