Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les have both ex­tend­ed con­grat­u­la­tions to Bar­ba­dos’ re-elect­ed Prime Min­is­ter Mia Mot­t­ley and her Bar­ba­dos Labour Par­ty (BLP), which won all 30 seats in Wednes­day’s gen­er­al elec­tion.

Mot­t­ley led the BLP to a sweep­ing vic­to­ry, re­tain­ing of­fice for a his­toric third term since first as­sum­ing lead­er­ship on May 25, 2018. The re­sult un­seat­ed Op­po­si­tion Leader Ralph Thorne, who re­signed from his po­si­tion yes­ter­day. (See page 15)

In a Face­book mes­sage yes­ter­day af­ter­noon, Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­scribed Mot­t­ley’s third con­sec­u­tive vic­to­ry as “a mile­stone that re­flects the strength of her lead­er­ship and the con­fi­dence of the Bar­ba­di­an peo­ple.”

“I al­so ex­tend sin­cere con­grat­u­la­tions to the Bar­ba­dos Labour Par­ty on its de­ci­sive elec­toral suc­cess, as well as to the peo­ple of Bar­ba­dos on a peace­ful and de­ci­sive de­mo­c­ra­t­ic ex­er­cise,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

“This re­newed man­date re­flects the deep con­fi­dence of the Bar­ba­di­an peo­ple in Prime Min­is­ter Mot­t­ley’s lead­er­ship, and in the vi­sion, record and achieve­ments of the BLP. Her re­sound­ing vic­to­ry stands as a pow­er­ful af­fir­ma­tion of trust earned and lead­er­ship proven.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said se­cur­ing a third con­sec­u­tive land­slide man­date was “an ex­cep­tion­al ac­com­plish­ment and a tes­ta­ment to her stead­fast com­mit­ment to na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment, re­silience and progress in a rapid­ly chang­ing glob­al en­vi­ron­ment.”

She added that the mo­ment car­ried added mean­ing, giv­en the long­stand­ing per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al friend­ship she shares with Mot­t­ley.

The Prime Min­is­ter de­tailed their as­so­ci­a­tion, forged ear­ly in their ca­reers as Caribbean at­tor­neys and strength­ened through col­lab­o­ra­tion on re­gion­al le­gal mat­ters. Over the years, she said, their bond has deep­ened as con­tem­po­raries in po­lit­i­cal lead­er­ship, each serv­ing as prime min­is­ter, “unit­ed by com­mon de­mo­c­ra­t­ic val­ues and a shared re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to ad­vance the in­ter­ests of our peo­ples and strength­en Caribbean uni­ty.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so not­ed that Bar­ba­dos holds spe­cial sig­nif­i­cance for her, as she lived there in the 1980s while at­tend­ing law school.

She said Mot­t­ley’s pres­ence at her swear­ing-in cer­e­mo­ny in Par­lia­ment fol­low­ing the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ vic­to­ry in Trinidad and To­ba­go’s 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion re­flect­ed not on­ly per­son­al good­will but al­so the “en­dur­ing and un­break­able ties be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and Bar­ba­dos as sis­ter na­tions with­in Cari­com.”

“The re­la­tion­ship be­tween our two coun­tries re­mains root­ed in shared his­to­ry, cul­ture, com­merce and re­gion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty. To­geth­er, we con­tin­ue to ad­vance food and en­er­gy se­cu­ri­ty, cli­mate re­silience, eco­nom­ic in­te­gra­tion and a stronger, more in­flu­en­tial Caribbean voice on the glob­al stage,” she said.

“I wish Prime Min­is­ter Mot­t­ley and her Gov­ern­ment on­go­ing guid­ance, wis­dom and strength as they serve their na­tion, fos­ter­ing con­tin­ued progress and sta­bil­i­ty for Bar­ba­dos. May the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of Bar­ba­dos be en­dowed with en­dur­ing peace, sus­tained pros­per­i­ty and abun­dant suc­cess,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar added.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day morn­ing, Beck­les said the out­come of Wednes­day’s elec­tion “re­flects the con­tin­ued con­fi­dence of the Bar­ba­di­an peo­ple in Prime Min­is­ter Mot­t­ley’s lead­er­ship and her stead­fast com­mit­ment to na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment and re­gion­al en­gage­ment.”

She not­ed that Mot­t­ley made his­to­ry on May 25, 2018, as the first woman to serve as Prime Min­is­ter of Bar­ba­dos.

“Since then, she has dis­tin­guished her­self as a trans­for­ma­tive leader, guid­ing Bar­ba­dos through sig­nif­i­cant eco­nom­ic re­form and the his­toric tran­si­tion to a par­lia­men­tary re­pub­lic in 2021. Her tenure has al­so am­pli­fied the voice of Small Is­land De­vel­op­ing States on the glob­al stage, par­tic­u­lar­ly in ad­vo­cat­ing for cli­mate jus­tice and eq­ui­table fi­nanc­ing for vul­ner­a­ble na­tions.”

Beck­les added: “We wel­come her re­newed man­date and look for­ward to con­tin­ued col­lab­o­ra­tion in the spir­it of part­ner­ship, progress and Caribbean uni­ty. We al­so ac­knowl­edge the De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Labour Par­ty and its can­di­dates for their par­tic­i­pa­tion in the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic process. A strong democ­ra­cy is strength­ened by prin­ci­pled rep­re­sen­ta­tion and mean­ing­ful en­gage­ment across the po­lit­i­cal spec­trum.

“The peo­ple of Bar­ba­dos have once again demon­strat­ed their stead­fast com­mit­ment to democ­ra­cy. As fel­low small is­land de­vel­op­ing states with­in Cari­com, our na­tions re­main unit­ed in pur­pose, work­ing to­geth­er to ad­vance eco­nom­ic re­silience, so­cial progress and re­gion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty. We wish the gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of Bar­ba­dos every suc­cess and reaf­firm our com­mit­ment to deep­en­ing the bonds of friend­ship and co­op­er­a­tion be­tween our two coun­tries.”