The rul­ing Bar­ba­dos Labour Par­ty (BLP) main­tained its al­most full com­mand of the 30-seat Par­lia­ment, when for­mer ed­u­ca­tion­al trans­for­ma­tion min­is­ter, Chad Black­man, won the St James North con­stituen­cy in the by-elec­tion on Wednes­day.

Pre­lim­i­nary re­sults showed that the 42-year-old Black­man, polled 2, 723 votes as against 468 for the Fe­li­cia Du­jon of the main op­po­si­tion De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Labour Par­ty (DLP). He de­feat­ed al­so Stef­fanie Williams of the Com­mu­ni­ty Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty, who got 21 votes, and Alex Mitchell of the Ba­jan Free Par­ty with sev­en votes.

“I thank God be­cause he gave me strength, he gave the team strength…but this is re­al­ly a vic­to­ry for the peo­ple for St. James North.”

“This by-elec­tion had been fought on peo­ple un­der­stand­ing why now Chad Black­man,” he said, adding it was based on the idea in or­der to serve peo­ple, you must bring tan­gi­ble pro­grammes to them.

Black­man, who pre­vi­ous­ly served as Bar­ba­dos’ am­bas­sador to Gene­va and held a se­nior con­sul­tan­cy role with the In­ter­na­tion­al Labour Or­gan­i­sa­tion (ILO), praised the for­mer par­lia­men­tary rep­re­sen­ta­tive for his guid­ance “and I see this as yes a vic­to­ry, but now the re­al wok be­gins”.

The vic­to­ry main­tained the BLP’s strong­hold on the Par­lia­ment af­ter the par­ty had won all 30 seats in the past two gen­er­al elec­tions, but one of its mem­bers, Ralph Thorne KC, re­signed to join the DLP, be­com­ing the Op­po­si­tion Leader in the Par­lia­ment.

The by-elec­tion fol­lowed the res­ig­na­tion of gov­ern­ment back­bencher Ed­mund Hink­son, and Prime Min­is­ter Mia Mot­t­ley, who had been a cen­tral fig­ure in the cam­paign, said that the vot­ers of St James North had spo­ken re­sound­ing­ly.

“It is an ex­tra­or­di­nary per­for­mance for a first-time can­di­date…this has been an ex­tra­or­di­nary per­for­mance and this was not the Bar­ba­dos Labour Par­ty which first as­sert­ed that this was a ref­er­en­dum on the gov­ern­ment’s per­for­mance, it was the De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Labour Par­ty that night af­ter night as­sert­ed that and the peo­ple of St. James North…have spo­ken re­sound­ing­ly,” she said.

“This is not to say the gov­ern­ment is per­fect,” she added.

BRIDGETOWN, Bar­ba­dos, May 22, CMC –

CMC/ag/ir/2025