MAMA MIA - Mottley leads her party to another clean sweep in Barbados

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados

CMC: Barbadian voters bought into the philosophy that they are "safer with Mia" and re-elected the ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP) into government, with a consecutive clean sweep of the 30 seats in Parliament.

Preliminary results showed that the BLP had won all the seats in the election that Prime Minister Mia Mottley called 18 months ahead of the constitutional deadline and in the process allowed the party to become only the second political organisation in the Caribbean to sweep all seats in an election on consecutive occasions.

The only other time that this has been achieved was in Grenada, when Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell led his New National Party (NNP) in winning all 15 seats in 2018.

Mottley defended the decision to call the election early, saying it was important to "take fresh guard".

"I thank, you, you the people of Barbados for accepting us at our word that if we do not fix our problems starting from tomorrow, we will not be able to guarantee safety to our people in the next 10 to 15 years."

In 2018, Mottley led the BLP to a 30-nil trouncing of the then Freundel Stuart DLP government. Verla De Peiza took over the leadership of the party that same year and had hoped to reverse the fortunes of the decades-old political party.

Mottley said the three-week campaign had been "rough", telling supporters "we wanted to start 2022 as far as possible on a fresh guard... and you have given us that opportunity.

"Tonight the people of Barbados have spoken," she said, vowing that the new administration would continue to put the nation's welfare above any parliamentary majority.

Leader of the main opposition Democratic Labour Party (DLP), De Peiza, conceded defeat, extending congratulations to the BLP.

De Peiza, who led the DLP into a general election for the first time, was soundly defeated in the St Lucy constituency, considered a stronghold of the party, polling 1,095 votes as against 2,038 for the BLP's Peter Phillips.

De Peiza said that while she was conceding and congratulating the Prime Minister Mottley-led BLP, she had no immediate plans to step down as political leader.

"We will make those decisions at a later stage," she said, adding that "I am proud of what I have established".

She said that the voter turnout in the election "continues to be depressing", adding that "serious work will have to be done going forward.

"It was a reckless time to call an election, depressed voter turnout," she said, adding that she was also "disappointed with the results".