Mia Amor Mottley was sworn in on Thursday for a third term as Prime Minister of Barbados following a landslide victory in the country’s general election.
The brief ceremony was held at State House, where Mottley took the Oath of Office in the presence of the President of Barbados, family members and invited guests.
Her governing Barbados Labour Party (BLP) secured a clean sweep of all 30 seats in the House of Assembly when counting concluded early Thursday, giving Mottley a historic third consecutive election victory.
Speaking after the result, Mottley said: “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.”
The 60-year-old leader is only the second prime minister in Barbados to serve more than two consecutive terms.
Prior to Mottley, the only Barbadian prime minister to serve more than two consecutive terms was Owen Seymour Arthur (BLP). Arthur led Barbados from 1994 to 2008, winning three successive elections and becoming the country’s longest-serving prime minister in its modern history
Addressing supporters she pledged to intensify work in areas including infrastructure, healthcare and road safety.
“We did not come simply to hold office. We have come to make Barbados better and to make your lives better,” she said, adding that Friday would be observed as a public holiday.
Internationally, Mottley has emerged as a leading advocate for reform of global debt arrangements for climate-vulnerable states, including the use of debt-for-climate swaps. Barbados, which defaulted on its bonds in 2018, reduced its debt-to-GDP ratio to just under 100 per cent last year for the first time in more than a decade.
The opposition Democratic Labour Party (DLP) acknowledged the scale of the defeat, saying in a statement: “The people have spoken, and we respect their voices.” He has since steeped down as Leader of the Party. Thorne had previously been elected in 2022 as a BLP candidate but later crossed the floor to the Democratic Labour Party.
