 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
30 seats in the House of Assembly 16 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turnout | 62.02% ( 1.52%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Results by constituency | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|---|
General elections were held in Barbados on 21 February 2013. They were the first post-independence elections where the election date was announced five years after the last general election. [1] The ruling Democratic Labour Party was re-elected with a reduced majority, winning 16 of the 30 seats in the House of Assembly. [2]
According to the Constitution of Barbados, elections must take place no longer than every five years from the first sitting of Parliament. [3] The last general election was held on 15 January 2008, while the first sitting of the current session of Parliament was held on 12 February 2008. [4] After the dissolution of Parliament, the Governor-General of Barbados, on behalf of the Crown in Right of Barbados, must issue a writ for a general election for members to the House of Assembly and for appointment of Senators to the Senate within 90 days. [5]
The election and nomination dates were announced by Prime Minister Freundel Stuart on 29 January 2013. The nomination deadline for candidates to register was scheduled for 6 February 2013. [6] [7] [8] [9]
 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| Democratic Labour Party | 78,851 | 51.30 | 16 | –4 | |
| Barbados Labour Party | 74,121 | 48.22 | 14 | +4 | |
| People's Democratic Congress | 89 | 0.06 | 0 | 0 | |
| Bajan Free Party | 50 | 0.03 | 0 | New | |
| Kingdom Government of Barbados | 39 | 0.03 | 0 | New | |
| Independents | 552 | 0.36 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 153,702 | 100.00 | 30 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 153,702 | 99.52 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 741 | 0.48 | |||
| Total votes | 154,443 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 249,024 | 62.02 | |||
| Source: Caribbean Elections | |||||
The Government of Barbados (GoB) is a unitary parliamentary republic, where the President of Barbados is the head of state and the Prime Minister of Barbados is the head of government.
In the Parliament of Australia, a casual vacancy arises when a member of either the Senate or the House of Representatives:
The National Assembly of Pakistan is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Pakistan, with the upper house being the Senate. As of 2023, the National Assembly has a maximum membership of 336, of which 266 are directly elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past-the-post system to represent their respective constituencies, while 60 are elected on reserved seats for women and religious minorities from all over the country. Members hold their seats for five years or until the house is dissolved by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister. The house convenes at the Parliament House, Red Zone, Islamabad.
The Parliament of Pakistan is the supreme legislative body of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. It is a bicameral federal legislature, composed of the President of Pakistan and two houses: the Senate and the National Assembly. The president, as head of the legislature, has the power to summon or prorogue either house of the Parliament. The president can dissolve the National Assembly, only on the Prime Minister's advice.
Elections in Barbados are held to choose members to fill elective offices in the House of Assembly. Elections are held on Election Day. These general elections do not have fixed dates, but must be called within five years of the opening of parliament following the last election. A former minister of the DLP, Warwick Franklin summed up the general elections process in Barbados as saying it is really just, "30 by-elections on the same day."
The Constitution Alteration Bill 1977, was an unsuccessful proposal to alter the Australian Constitution to enable simultaneous elections for the House of Representatives and the Senate. It was put to voters for approval in a referendum held on 21 May 1977.
The Parliament of Barbados is the national legislature of Barbados. It is accorded legislative supremacy by Chapter V of the Constitution of Barbados. The Parliament is bicameral in composition and is formally made up of two houses, an appointed Senate and an elected House of Assembly, as well as the President of Barbados who is indirectly elected by both. Both houses sit in separate chambers in the Parliament Buildings, in the national capital Bridgetown in Saint Michael.
The House of Assembly of Barbados is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Barbados. It has 30 Members of Parliament (MPs), who are directly elected in single member constituencies using the simple-majority system for a term of five years. The House of Assembly sits roughly 40–45 days a year and is presided over by a Speaker.
Parliament of Sierra Leone is the legislative branch of the government of Sierra Leone. It is principally responsible for making laws. The Sierra Leone parliament consists of 149 members, of which 135 members are directly elected from across Sierra Leone's 16 districts, while 14 are paramount chiefs appointed from the 14 rural districts. The parliament is led by the Speaker of the House; the position is currently held by Abass Bundu of the Sierra Leone People's Party. The current elected 135 ordinary members of parliament are composed of members of the All People's Congress and the Sierra Leone People's Party which are the two largest political parties in Sierra Leone.
The Parliament of the Cayman Islands is the unicameral legislature of the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands. It is composed of 21 members; 19 elected members for a four-year term and two members ex officio.
Section 4 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the second of three democratic rights sections in the Charter, enshrining a constitutional requirement for regular federal, provincial and territorial elections that cannot be arbitrarily delayed or suspended. Subsection 4(1) provides that the maximum term of the House of Commons of Canada, and of all provincial and territorial legislative assemblies, is five years. A narrow exception to this rule in case of war or rebellion is provided under subsection 4(2), but any extension would still require support of a two-thirds majority in each affected legislature.
On 30 November 2021, Barbados transitioned from a parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the hereditary monarch of Barbados to a parliamentary republic with a ceremonial indirectly elected president as head of state. The prime minister remained head of government while the last governor-general, Dame Sandra Mason, was elected as the country's first president on 20 October 2021, and took office on 30 November 2021.
The monarchy of Barbados was a system of government in which a hereditary monarch was the sovereign and head of state of Barbados from 1966 to 2021. Barbados shared the sovereign with the other Commonwealth realms, with the country's monarchy being separate and legally distinct. The monarch's operational and ceremonial duties were mostly delegated to her representative, the governor-general of Barbados.
The Constitution of Barbados is the supreme law under which Barbados is governed. The Constitution provides a legal establishment of the Government of Barbados, as well as legal rights and responsibilities of the public and various other government officers. The Constitution which came into force in 1966 was amended in 1974, 1980, 1981, 1985, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1995, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. The 1966 document succeeds several other documents concerning administration of Barbados. One of them, the Barbados Charter, is discussed in the present Constitution's Preamble. Prior statutes were created for the administration of Barbados as a colony. As a former English and later British colony, the Constitution is similar to those of other former Commonwealth realms, yet distinctly different in the spirit of the Statute of Westminster.
Dáil Éireann is the lower house and principal chamber of the Oireachtas, which also includes the president of Ireland and a senate called Seanad Éireann. It consists of 160 members, each known as a Teachta Dála. TDs represent 39 constituencies and are directly elected for terms not exceeding five years, on the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV). Its powers are similar to those of lower houses under many other bicameral parliamentary systems and it is by far the dominant branch of the Oireachtas. Subject to the limits imposed by the Constitution of Ireland, it has power to pass any law it wishes, and to nominate and remove the Taoiseach. Since 1922, it has met in Leinster House in Dublin.
Section 5 of the Constitution of Australia empowers the Governor-General of Australia to prorogue the Australian Parliament, thereby bringing the current legislative session to an end. Prorogation clears all business pending before Parliament and allows the houses to be called back on a particular date without triggering an election. The date for the new session of Parliament may be specified either in the proroguing proclamation or when the governor-general summons the Parliament to meet again.
The Constitution Alteration 1988 was an unsuccessful proposal put to referendum in the 1988 Australian referendum on 3 September 1988. It proposed to alter the Australian constitution so that both the House of Representatives and the Senate would be elected for a term of four years. This involved reducing the terms of the Senate from six years to four years, and increasing the terms of the House of Representatives from three years to four years. It also proposed for the fourth time that Senate and House elections occur simultaneously.
The president of Barbados is the head of state of Barbados and the commander-in-chief of the Barbados Defence Force. The office was established when the country became a parliamentary republic on 30 November 2021. Prior to that date, the head of state was Elizabeth II, Queen of Barbados, who was represented on the island by a governor-general. The final person to hold that position, Sandra Mason, is currently serving as Barbados' first president.
General elections were held in Barbados on 19 January 2022 to elect the 30 members of the House of Assembly. The ruling Barbados Labour Party won all 30 seats for the second consecutive election.
"We knew that the Constitution and the law allowed him to call it after the five years had passed since the last election but it was the practice in Barbados and most of the Commonwealth that you would call the elections before the anniversary of the last election date.
Election officials got the ball rolling tonight when they were dispatched island wide to post notices of the February 21 polling and Nomination Day, which will be next Wednesday. Here officers Haskell Drakes and Everton Henry paste a notice on the door of the District "A" Police Station.
The date for the next General Election has been set. Barbadians will be heading to the polls on Thursday, February 21 to cast their votes. Nomination day is next week Wednesday.
 | This Barbados-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
