General elections were held in

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

on 24 May 2018. The result was a

landslide victory A landslide victory is an election result in which the winning Candidate#Candidates in elections, candidate or political party, party achieves a decisive victory by an overwhelming margin, securing a very large majority of votes or seats far beyo ...

for the opposition

Barbados Labour Party The Barbados Labour Party (BLP), colloquially known as the "Bees", is a social democratic political party in Barbados established in 1938. It has been in power in 1954–1961, 1976–1986, 1994–2008, and 2018–present. The BLP has been the go ...

(BLP), which won all 30 seats in the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible g ...

,Barbados elects Mia Mottley as first woman PM
BBC News, 25 May 2018 resulting in BLP leader

Mia Mottley Mia "Ma" Amor Mottley, (born 1 October 1965) is a Barbadian politician and attorney who has served as the eighth prime minister of Barbados since 2018 and as Leader of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) since 2008. Mottley is the first woman to h ...

becoming the country's first female

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

. The BLP's victory was the first time a party had won every seat in the House of Assembly. Previously, the most one-sided result for a Barbadian election had been in

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

, when the BLP won 26 of the 28 seats. The BLP's 73.5 percent vote share was also the highest on record. The ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) led by Freundel Stuart lost all 16 seats, the worst defeat of a sitting government in Barbadian history. The DLP saw its vote share more than halve compared to the previous elections in 2013, with only one of its candidates receiving more than 40 percent of the vote. Stuart was defeated in his own constituency, receiving only 26.7 percent of the vote,Report on 2018 election
at Caribbean Elections the second time a sitting Prime Minister had lost their own seat. It was also the first time since independence that the constituency of St John, a traditionally DLP stronghold, was won by the BLP. The election was fought primarily on the DLP's stewardship of the economy during its decade in power. The government had had to contend with numerous downgrades of its credit rating due to fallout from the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

. The BLP criticised the DLP over rising taxes and a declining

standard of living Standard of living is the level of income, comforts and services available to an individual, community or society. A contributing factor to an individual's quality of life, standard of living is generally concerned with objective metrics outsid ...

, and promised numerous infrastructure upgrades if elected.

Electoral system

The 30 members of the House of Assembly were elected by

first-past-the-post voting First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or first-preference, and the candidate with more first- ...

in single-member constituencies.

Candidates

A record 134 candidates from nine political parties contested the elections. Four of the smaller parties chose to fight together under the 'Coalition of United Parties' banner.

Results

By constituency

Christ Church East

Christ Church East Central

Christ Church South

Christ Church West

Christ Church West Central

City of Bridgetown

St. Andrew

St. George North

St. George South

St. James Central

St. James North

St. James South

St. John

St. Joseph

St. Lucy

St. Michael Central

St. Michael East

St. Michael North

St. Michael North East

St. Michael North West

St. Michael South

St. Michael South Central

St. Michael South East

St. Michael West

St. Michael West Central

St. Peter

St. Philip North

St. Philip South

St. Philip West

St. Thomas

Aftermath

One week after the elections, Joseph Atherley, MP for St. Michael West,

crossed the floor In some parliamentary systems (e.g., in Canada and the United Kingdom), politicians are said to cross the floor if they formally change their political affiliation to a political party different from the one they were initially elected under. I ...

to become the House of Assembly's sole opposition member, citing concerns about democracy. He was subsequently appointed Leader of the Opposition. Originally sitting as an independent, he set up his own party, the People's Party for Democracy and Development.

2020 St George North by-election

A by-election was held in the constituency of St George North on 11 November 2020 following the resignation of Gline Clarke, who had represented the constituency for 26 years, to accept the post of Barbadian High Commissioner to Canada. It was the first by-election to take place since the 2018 general election. Toni Moore retained the seat for the BLP.

References

{{Barbadian elections

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

Elections in Barbados