Mia Mottley for P.M. as Red Tide Sweeps Barbados

Mia Mottley

In historic regional news, following a sweep of the country’s thirty seats in the House of Assembly by her Barbados Labour Party, Mia Amor Mottley was this afternoon sworn in as Barbados’ eighth Prime Minister and first woman to hold the post. Mottley took her oath in the presence of Governor General Dame Sandra Mason, followed by elected member Dale Marshall as Attorney General. She was surrounded by her family and supporters including parents Elliott Mottley, a former Justice of Belize’s Court of Appeal, and Amor Mottley. It is the first clean sweep of seats in the Barbados House in modern history, catapulting the senior attorney to the ranks of the late Dame Eugenia Charles from Dominica, the late Janet Jagan from Guyana, Portia Simpson Miller from Jamaica and Kamla Persad-Bissessar from Trinidad and Tobago as Caribbean women chief executives.  She humbly thanked her nation for the extensive size of the electoral victory.  Meanwhile, outgoing Prime Minister Freundel Stuart was left to contemplate the scale of his Democratic Labour Party’s massive defeat and his own retirement from politics.  Our colleagues at the Caribbean Media Corporation summarize the events of the last twelve to eighteen tumultuous hours in Barbados politics in this report.

[CMC Report on Barbados Elections]

Mottley says she will name her Cabinet by Monday and her first priority is to reduce the country’s fiscal deficit. Opposition Leader in Belize, John Briceño, today sent a note of congratulations to Mottley, referring to the countries’ strong relations and close cooperation at international level. He expressed the hope of getting a chance to work with her in the future.