Democratic Labour Party (Barbados)

Democratic Labour Party
Leader Freundel Stuart
Founded 1955
Split from Barbados Labour Party
Ideology Social democracy
Democratic socialism
Political position Centre-left
House of Assembly
16 / 30
Senate
11 / 21
Website
www.dlpbarbados.org
Politics of Barbados
Political parties
Elections

The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) is a political party in Barbados, and currently the ruling party of the country. It is led by Freundel Stuart.

History

The DLP was founded in 1955 by Errol Barrow, James Cameron Tudor, Frederick "Sleepy" Smith and 26 others.[1][2] Once members of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP), these 29 broke away to form this more left-leaning alternative. However, as a result of this common origin, the two parties have been and remain ideologically similar. In the 1956 general elections the party received 19.9% of the vote and won four seats.[3] In the next elections in 1961 it received fewer votes than the BLP, but won a majority of the seats in Parliament, with Barrow becoming Premier.

After the party retained power in the 1966 elections (this time with a plurality of the vote),[4] Barrow became the country's first Prime Minister. The party won a third successive election in 1971, but lost power to the BLP in 1976.[5] They remained in opposition until victory in the 1986 elections, in which they won 24 of the 27 seats.[5] They remained in power following the 1991 elections, but were defeated by the BLP in the 1994 elections. They returned to power again in 2008.

References

  1. "The Party". Official Web Site. Democratic Labour Party. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
  2. Nohlen, D (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p85 ISBN 978-0-19-928357-6
  3. Nohlen, pp92-93
  4. Nohlen, p92
  5. 1 2 Nohlen, p94

External links

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