House of Assembly of Barbados

House of Assembly
Coat of arms or logo
Type
Type
Leadership
Michael A. Carrington
Since 15 January 2008
Leader
Mia Mottley (Barbados Labour Party - BLP)
Since 18 October 2010
Structure
Seats 30
Political groups

Her Majesty's Government

HM Loyal Opposition

Other parties in opposition
Elections
Last election
21 February 2013
Next election
no later than May 2018
Meeting place
House of Assembly chamber
Bridgetown,
St. Michael,
Barbados, West Indies
Website
The House of Assembly
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Barbados
Constitution

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The House of Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Barbados. It has 30 Members of Parliament (MPs), MPs are directly elected in single member constituencies using the simple-majority (or First-past-the-post) system for a term of five years. The House of Assembly sits 40 roughly 4045 days a year.

The Barbadian House of Assembly chamber is located in the east-wing of The Public Buildings on Broad Street, in Bridgetown, Barbados. The Speaker of the House becomes the thirty-first member when there is a tie vote.

Oath or affirmation

Under section 59 of the constitution, before entering upon the functions of his or her office, the MPs must take the oath of allegiance and the oath of office. According to the "First Schedule" section of the Constitution of Barbados, the official Oath of office for the Prime Minister, Ministers of Parliament, and Parliamentary Secretaries of Barbados is as follows:

I, _________________________, being appointed (Prime Minister/Minister/Parliamentary Secretary), do swear that I will do the best of my judgement, at all times when so required, freely give my counsel and advice to the Governor General (or any other person for the time being lawfully performing the functions of that office) for the good management of the public affairs of Barbados, and I do further swear that I will not on any account, at any time whatsoever, disclose the counsel, advice, opinion or vote of any particular Minister or Parliamentary Secretary and that I will not, except with the authority of the Cabinet and to such extent as may be required for the good management of the affairs of Barbados, directly or indirectly reveal the business or proceedings of the Cabinet or the nature or contents of any documents communicated to me as (Prime Minister/Minister/Parliamentary Secretary) or any matter coming to my knowledge in my capacity as such and that in all things I will be a true and faithful (Prime Minister/Minister/Parliamentary Secretary), so Help me God.

Latest elections

 Summary of the 15 January 2008 Barbados House of Assembly election results
Parties Votes % Seats
Democratic Labour Party 70,135 53.21 20
Barbados Labour Party 61,316 46.52 10
People's Empowerment Party 198 0.15
Independents 129 0.10
People's Democratic Congress 28 0.02
Total valid votes 131,806 100.00 30
Source: The Nation
 Summary of the 21 February 2013 Elections
Parties Votes % Seats
Democratic Labour Party 78,566 51.28 16
Barbados Labour Party 74,027 48.32 14
Bajan Free Party 94 0.06
People Democratic Congress 38 0.02
New Barbados Kingdom Alliance 72 0.05 -
Independents 407 0.27 -
Total valid votes 153,204 100.00 30
Source: The Nation

Previous elections

Main article: Elections in Barbados

In previous elections the National Democratic Party (NDP), the Barbados National Party (BNP), the Conservatives and Independents also won seats besides the two big parties - the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) and the Democratic Labour Party (DLP). The DLP which had been in opposition since 1994, won a surprise victory of 20 seats to 10, on January 16, 2008 DLP leader David Thompson (Barbadian politician) was sworn in as the 6th Prime Minister of Barbados. Freundel Stuart was sworn in, in 2010 because of the death of the Prime Minister David Thompson. Freundel Stuart was sworn in on February 23, 2013 by obtaining sixteen out of thirty seat. Elections 2013 was one of the closest election Barbados has every seen.

election BLP DLP NDP BNP Conservatives Independents
21 February 20131416
15 January 20081020
21 May 2003237
20 January 1999262
5 September 19941981
21 January 19911018
28 January 1986324
19811710
1976177
1971618
3 November 19668142
196141442
195615441

See also

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, February 09, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.