Barbados leader faces tough election test with economy slugging

23/5/2018 12:58

        Barbados Prime
        Minister Freundel Stuart will attempt to become the first leader
        of his center-left ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) in
        decades to secure re-election when the Caribbean island goes to
        the polls on Thursday.
        
        In a battle expected to be closely contested, former
        minister Mia Mottley is bidding to stop him. She hopes to end 10
        years on the sidelines for the Barbados Labour Party (BLP), also
        a center-left party and the DLP's main opposition.
        
        If elected, Mottley, 52, would become the country's first
        female prime minister since independence from Britain in 1966.
        
        The Barbadian economy has struggled since suffering a sharp
        contraction in 2009 in the wake of the global financial crisis.
        Growth was minimal in the next few years until gross domestic
        product expanded 1.6 percent in 2016, World Bank data show.
        
        The weak growth has put strains on Barbados' public debt,
        pressuring foreign exchange reserves and helping to spark
        repeated downgrades of the island's credit rating.
        
        Mottley's BLP have attacked Stuart over taxation and the
        cost of living, pledging to provide regular garbage collection,
        more buses for public transportation, and repair potholed roads
        up and down the country's 166 square miles (430 square
        kilometers).
        
        The government has also come under attack for failing to
        contain effluent bubbling up from sewers along south coast roads
        that lead to the sun-kissed island's famed tourist resorts.
        
        Though Stuart announced the election less than a month ago,
        the BLP has been in campaign mode since the start of 2018.
        
        Frustration over the longstanding DLP-BLP duopoly has caused
        a host of new political parties to spring up in the island of
        some 285,000 people, foremost among them the United Progressive
        Party (UPP) and Solutions Barbados.
        
        The 67-year-old Stuart took the reins in 2010 following the
        death of his predecessor David Thompson. The last DLP leader to
        be re-elected for a second term was Errol Barrow, who was
        premier, then prime minister, of Barbados from 1961 to 1976.