When the counting ended, Preliminary figures showed that the BLP blanked the incumbent Democratic Labour Party (DLP) in all 30 constituencies with  the 52 year old Mia Mottley achieving her goal of becoming the first woman to head a government in this Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country, and will do so without any official opposition.

Prime Minister Freundel Stuart lost his seat to new comer Kirk Humphrey in the St Michael South constituency and all of his Cabinet colleagues were booted out and will not be returning to the Parliament.

The DLP had been in power for the past 10 years and Stuart, who had succeeded the late David Thompson as prime minister when he died in October 2010, had successfully won the 2013 poll by a slender two seat margin.

As the counting continued into the early hours of this morning, Democratic Labour Party (DLP) leader Freundel Stuart conceded defeat and congratulated the Prime Minister Elect Mia Mottley and her team.

The BLP headquarters erupted in celebration as prime minister-designate Mia Mottley, the island’s first female leader, delivered her victory speech just before 4 a.m.

Mottley thanked Prime Minister Stuart and his team for their service and comiserated with those who had lost their seats.

She acknowledged there would be celebration, but, she said it was not a time to gloat but to unite the country to take it forward, reiterating her commitment to keeping the BLP’s campaign promises.

She said she would be putting her cabinet together by Monday, and would be releasing the results of the IMF Article 4 assessment so that the country could realize the true state of the island's economic condition.

She told her audience that her government would be reviving the social partnership with the unions, churches and civil society, and would be relieving the Barbadian citizenry of the onorous burden of taxes.

Mottley said she would be looking to deal with the foreign exchange crisis, putting buses back on the road, fixing the garbage problem as well as dealing with the island's pensioners as a matter of urgency.

She announced that all schools would be closed today, and that with the exception of supermarkets and banks, she had advised businesses to close at 1 p.m. on Friday.

The counting of the ballots had been held up for several hours because of “certain irregularities”.

In a statement, the Electoral and Boundaries Commission (EBC) , said the Chief Electoral Officer was mandated by a court order late Thursday to add 18 people to the Register of Electors.

“Preparing the Addendum to facilitate this process and distributing the registers to various polling stations in several constituencies resulted in a delay in the close of poll in these constituencies.

“The vehicles and drivers recruited for the delivery of the Ballot Boxes containing ballots from the early poll of Thursday, May 17, had to be redirected to deliver the Addendum, resulting in an even further delay in the delivery of those boxes.

“The Electoral and Boundaries Commission wishes to assure the public that all necessary procedures were followed to protect the integrity of the poll.”

An estimated 255, 654 voters were eligible to cast ballots in the general election.