BARBADOS | Mottley Calls Snap Election: Seeks Third Term Against Ghost of an Opposition

Barbados PM seeks historic third term as moribund opposition scrambles to compete

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — Prime Minister Mia Mottley has fired the starting gun on a February 11 general election, dissolving Parliament a full year before the constitutional deadline in what critics are calling a calculated power play against a fractured opposition that can barely field a full slate of candidates.

Announcing the election at a Barbados Labour Party nomination meeting Saturday evening, Mottley told supporters she had advised President Jeffrey Bostic that Parliament would be dissolved Monday, January 19. Nomination Day is set for January 27, giving the hapless Democratic Labour Party just over three weeks to mount a campaign against the most dominant political force in modern Caribbean history.

The timing is no accident.

The BLP has won every single seat in the House of Assembly in back-to-back elections—first in 2018, then again in 2022. That's 60 consecutive constituency victories, leaving Barbados with what amounts to a one-party parliament.

The sole opposition voice, DLP leader Ralph Thorne, is himself a BLP defector who crossed the floor in 2024 and inherited leadership of a party in what political analyst Peter Wickham calls "fundamental disrepair."

Mottley framed the early dissolution as an exercise in democratic renewal. "If a leader wishes to continue, you must come back to us for a new mandate," she declared.

Yet the reality is more complicated. This is a Prime Minister who told Barbadians in 2022 that her second term would be her last, only to reverse course last May, citing global instability and appeals from supporters to remain.

The reversal came just days after another crushing BLP victory in the St James North by-election—a contest that further exposed the DLP's inability to compete. "I came to understand that true leadership is never about comfort," Mottley explained. "It is about calling, it is about timing, and it is about service."

A hollow opposition

The DLP enters this contest wounded and somewhat unprepared, despite the fact that about 2 weeks ago, they published their full slate of 30 candidates in the newspaper. Thorne's leadership has been plagued by internal strife, including a damaging conflict with rival Ronnie Yearwood that consumed party energy better spent on policy development.

Wickham, a respected pollster, offered a brutal assessment: "I don't think Ralph Thorne was ever a serious political leader... He simply came around by moving from one side of the aisle to the next."

The party's 2008-2018 tenure left deep scars on the Barbadian psyche—a period marked by economic mismanagement that culminated in a near-default and forced Mottley's incoming government to restructure the national debt with IMF assistance.

The DLP's campaign strategy appears focused on stoking fears about CARICOM free movement, accusing the government of padding voter rolls with Caribbean nationals—claims Mottley dismissed as "fanciful" and "irresponsible."

Economic reckoning deferred

Yet Mottley's record is not beyond reproach. Barbados carries approximately $15 billion in public debt, with debt servicing projected to consume $8.45 billion over the next five years.

The economy remains dangerously dependent on tourism, a sector one pandemic or hurricane away from collapse, as COVID-19 brutally demonstrated. Real GDP growth for 2025 has been revised downward to 2.7 percent amid global headwinds.

The government has borrowed $7.3 billion since taking office, even as it trumpets declining debt-to-GDP ratios—a figure that improved primarily through the 2018 debt restructuring as well as some amount of fiscal discipline.

The democracy question

The deeper concern is what consecutive clean sweeps mean for Barbadian democracy. Some critics have labelled Mottley a "de facto dictator"—an exaggeration, perhaps, but one that reflects genuine unease about concentrated power.

Without meaningful parliamentary opposition, scrutiny falls to civil society, media, and the Prime Minister's own conscience.

Mottley, to her credit, has achieved historic firsts: Barbados's first female Prime Minister, the leader who navigated the republic transition, a climate champion recognised internationally. Her "Safer with Mia" slogan resonates with voters who remember the DLP's economic chaos.

But safety and democratic health are not synonymous. Barbados deserves a functioning opposition capable of holding power accountable. Whether the February 11 poll produces one—or merely extends the BLP's unprecedented dominance—remains the Caribbean's most consequential political question this year.

—WiredJa Caribbean Desk

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