Barbadians to vote in general elections on January 19, 2022

BRIDGETOWN, December 28, 2021 -Weeks after becoming a Republic, Prime Minister Mottley has announced that Barbadians will go to the polls to elect a new government on January 19, 2022.

In an announcement to the nation last evening from llaro Court, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley said Nomination Day would be on January 3.

Ms. Mottley advised that she had met earlier in the day with the President of Barbados, The Most Honourable Dame Sandra Mason, and had advised that Parliament be dissolved with immediate effect.

The Prime Minister added that Dame Sandra had also been advised to issue writs for the “holding of new elections in Barbados”.

Mottley who led the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) to a historic 30-0 whitewash of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) in the May 2018 general elections, said “On this the 27th day of December, 2021, I have decided that it would be in the interest of Barbados, our country, our home that we recalibrate as a people behind one Government and one leader.

"Let me say that whoever emerges as that leader I will support.  I will do my utmost to promote the interest of Barbados and Barbadians in all that I say and do, as I have done in all of my public career and would continue to do until the Lord takes my breath,” she emphasized.

Announcement of General Elections in Barbados - Rebroadcast: Address to the Nation by the Prime Minister (Dec. 27, 2021) https://t.co/cRPH3A4bAH via @YouTube

— Mia Amor Mottley (@miaamormottley) December 28, 2021

Ms. Mottley disclosed that she would be advising officials from the Electoral and Boundaries Commission and the COVID-19 Cabinet Sub-Committee to meet on the structure of the voting process in light of the ongoing pandemic.

“I will also ensure that the Leader of the Opposition and myself are fully briefed after these meetings, and that we can update you in a matter of days on any agreed upon changes with respect to simplifying the conduct of elections in this environment,” the Prime Minister stated.

The Prime Minister said she made the decision to call the elections because she was “worried” about the divisiveness in the country.

She called on Barbadians to “unite around a common cause, a single Government and a single leader.”

“My worry going into 2022 revolves around the impact of the silly season on our tone and our tenor as a nation. The impact of the silly season on our actions and our utterances. The impact of the silly season on our ability to think Barbados and what is best for this little paradise in the middle of the sea, what is best for our future as a nation.

“I believe that we thrived and succeeded in 2018 and 2019 because an election was behind us and we united as a force against first, the fiscal and economic threats, and then later the onslaught of COVID. I believe that as a united Barbados that we will and have always been unbeatable…” Mottley said.

“Were it not for the emergence of the silly season, persons in Barbados in my view would therefore be calling a spade a spade. They would be saying what is right and what is wrong. They would be supporting policies and programmes designed to protect and safeguard this country, its inhabitants and those who do us the honour of visiting as vacationers or on business. That is why I am concerned that we should not enter 2022 as a divided nation,” Mottley declared.

Mottley, the leader of the Barbados Labour Party and first female prime minister of her country, won election in May 2018 for a five-year term. She pointed to her party’s overwhelming majority in parliament and noted she still had much of her first term left to serve.

“Were I motivated solely by the need to survive,” she said, “we could bask, my friends, in the glory of a 29-1 parliament and ride COVID out for the next 18 months, ”  she pointed out.

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