Barbados Landslide Win, But Where Were Voters?  

We now turn to regional politics. Barbados woke up today to a political landscape that looks very familiar, yet raises new questions. Mia Mottley didn’t just win yesterday’s general election; she wiped the slate clean again, leading her Barbados Labour Party to a third straight sweep of all thirty seats. It’s a rare political feat anywhere in the world, and one that cements her as one of the Caribbean’s most commanding figures. But beneath the historic victory lies a quieter storyline: many Barbadians simply stayed home. Reports from across the island point to a mid‑ to low‑turnout election, even after repeated calls for citizens to get out and vote. So why didn’t the energy at the polls match the size of the win? Tonight, we dig into the results, the mood on the ground, and how Prime Minister Mottley framed her landslide in her post‑election address, offering a glimpse of where Barbados goes next.

 

Mia Mottley, Prime Minister, Barbados

“ We stood here in 2018 and I promised you then that we would work hard to stabilize this country, that we would do the difficult things and we did them. We thought we could move to a growth path almost immediately, but COVID had other plans for us. And rather than a growth plan, we went from mission critical to mission survival and regrettably, some of our friends and family did not make it. It is really only in the last two and a half years that we have started mission transformation and it is to this, that this Barbados Labor Party government is committed. Yes, we did not come simply to hold office. We have come to make Barbados better and to make your lives better. We have never stopped believing from the days of Grant Lee Adams, that our mission, first and foremost, is to stop poor people from being poor and to remove injustice. Wherever it exists to create opportunities for people and to be able collectively to build strong families, strong communities, strong workers, strong businesses, and ultimately a strong nation.”