2018 Barbadian general election

2018 Barbadian general election

← 2013 24 May 2018 2022 →

30 seats in the House of Assembly
16 seats needed for a majority
Turnout59.56% (Decrease2.46pp)
  First party
 
Leader Mia Mottley
Party BLP
Last election 48.22%, 14 seats
Seats won 30
Seat change Increase16
Popular vote 112,955
Percentage 73.47%
Swing Increase25.25pp

Results by constituency

Prime Minister before election

Freundel Stuart
DLP

Elected Prime Minister

Mia Mottley
BLP

General elections were held in Barbados on 24 May 2018.[1] The result was a landslide victory for the opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP), which won all 30 seats in the House of Assembly,[2] resulting in BLP leader Mia Mottley becoming the country's first female Prime Minister. 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, 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,[2] 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,[3] 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.[4]

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 global financial crisis. The BLP criticised the DLP over rising taxes and a declining standard of living, and promised numerous infrastructure upgrades if elected.[3]

  1. ^ Barbados Election Centre Archived 2019-09-12 at the Wayback Machine Caribbean Elections
  2. ^ a b Barbados elects Mia Mottley as first woman PM BBC News, 25 May 2018
  3. ^ a b Report on 2018 election Archived 2019-09-12 at the Wayback Machine at Caribbean Elections
  4. ^ "Barbados Election Centre | Constituency of St. John". www.caribbeanelections.com. Retrieved 2022-07-27.