The Senate is made up of twenty-one Senators,[4] while the House consists of thirty Members of Parliament (MPs) in addition to the Honourable Speaker of the House. Members to serve in the Cabinet of Barbados may be chosen by the Prime Minister from either the House of Assembly or Senate,[5] (the Prime Minister alone who must be chosen by the President must come from the House of Assembly.)[6]
In theory, supreme legislative power is vested in all three components equally; in practice during modern times, real power is vested in the House of Assembly, as the President generally acts on the advice of the Prime Minister and the powers of the Senate have been limited.[7]
The Parliament of Barbados is originally patterned after the Parliament of England,[8] so the structure, functions, and procedures of the parliament are based on the Westminster system of government.
Sittings of both House and Senate are usually held once per month, with other meetings called as necessary. The House sits on Tuesdays beginning at 10:30am, and are broadcast live on the local radio station, Quality 100.7 FM. Sittings of the Senate take place on Wednesdays.
As of February 2020 the government has been renting various private buildings around Barbados, including the Worthing Corporate Centre[9][10] and Conference Centre (on 15 Sep 2020 for the State Opening of Parliament)[11][12] to host Parliament without any firm return date mentioned as to when it might return to using the capital site.
The genesis of a legislature in Barbados was introduced by Governor Henry Hawley, creating a structure of governance to Barbados, itself patterned after the Parliament of England). The then unicameral Parliament originally was tasked with establishing a system of laws and was completely under the domination of the island's planter-class. The first meeting of the Barbados Assembly was held in 1639.
The initial location known as the "Sessions House" which was situated in the Marlhill, which is now known as Spry Street. Built by Captain Henry Hawley, the building may have originally accommodated his Courts of Law. (On 25 June 1989, a monument was unveiled to commemorate the site outside of the current Central Bank.)
By 1653, the Assembly moved to the State House then located in Bridgetown area known as Cheapside (then encompassing Broad Street). In 1668 the State House was destroyed by a great fire started by an explosion of the Bridgetown military magazine. Over the next century, the colony's elected officials assembled at various locations all over Bridgetown, which were rented taverns and homes of local merchants and landlords. The Roebuck Tavern located on Roebuck Street was a favourite assembly point and was also owned by Henry Hawley. The movement of the Assembly among the various taverns in the town eventually presented an irony for the thriving colony. Governor Atkins, who was attending a meeting at Gwynn's Tavern in 1674 commented, "I must confess I am a little astonished to see so honourable an Assembly to meet in a place so considerable as the island is, and have no house to receive us but a public tavern" (TOB 71). For many years the Barbados Assembly continued to meet in various places. In 1724 an Act was passed providing for a building for the Council and Assembly, Law Courts and gaol. The building located on Coleridge Street was completed in 1731–1732, yet the House of Assembly still often met at times at different private houses and taverns. The current Parliament Buildings were built in the neo-Gothic style in the early 1870s on the site of what was known as the "New Burnt District", which was part of a 10-acre area in the town that was destroyed by the great fire in 1860.
In 1968 the Barbados Parliament was presented two complete libraries of Parliamentary and constitutional works of reference from the British House of Commons to celebrate political Independence with membership to the Commonwealth.[15][16]
The Parliament of Barbados in its current form was first introduced following the 1961 general elections. In 1963 the colonial era Legislative Council was disestablished. In its place came the Senate in 1964 (due to Barbados' status as a colony of Great Britain). As the years went by, governance in Barbados continued to change in structure until both of the present chambers assumed their present numbers.
Legislative functions
Parliament is empowered by Article 35(l) of the Constitution to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of Barbados.[17] The Constitution also empowers Parliament to:
Determine the privileges, immunities, and powers of the Senate and the House of Assembly and the members thereof;[18]
alter or amend any of the provisions of the constitution;[19]
Following amendments to the Constitution that initiated a transition to a republican form of government in 2021, Parliament is also responsible for electing the country's President.
"BE IT ENACTED by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Assembly of Barbados and by the authority of the same as follows:-"[20]
"ENACTED by the Parliament of Barbados as follows:-"[21]
Members in Parliament
As of the 16 February 2024, the Barbados Labour Party holds 29 seats in the House of the Assembly, with the rival Democratic Labour Party holding 1 seat. In the senate, the BLP holds 12 seats with the DLP holding 2 seats and independents holding 7 seats.[22][23]
The next general election in Barbados is expected to be held by 2027 the latest. According to the Constitution of Barbados elections can take place no longer than every five years from the first sitting of Parliament.[24] The last general election was held on 19 January 2022.
The Constitution of Barbados also establishes that at any time before this date the Government in power may seek a new mandate from the electorate and may ask for the current sitting of Parliament be dissolved by the President and allow for the announcement of a new date for General elections.[24] The President of Barbados may also announce a new date of General elections should the Prime Minister in power not survive a vote of no confidence motion.
↑ Cumberbatch, Jeff (5 May 2010). "Editorial got it right, Mr. Simmons". The Barbados Advocate. Archived from the original on 6 May 2012. Retrieved 7 August 2011. Barbados' Parliament, which postdates that of Britain and Bermuda could not then be the third oldest. Perhaps Barbados might take a leaf from Bermuda's book and describe our Parliament not as the third oldest in the world or the third oldest in the Commonwealth, but truthfully as "the oldest continuous Parliament of an independent Commonwealth country outside the British Isles".
1 2 Constitution: Section 61 (3): "Subject to the provisions of subsection (4), Parliament, unless sooner dissolved, shall continue for five years from the date of its first sitting after any dissolution and shall then stand dissolved. (4) At any time when Barbados is at war, Parliament may extend the period of five years specified in subsection (3) for not more than twelve months at a time:"
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.
The politics of Barbados function within a framework of a parliamentary republic with strong democratic traditions; constitutional safeguards for nationals of Barbados include: freedom of speech, press, worship, movement, and association.
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. Members of parliament typically form parliamentary groups, sometimes called caucuses, with members of the same political party. Many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members often have a different title. The terms congressman/congresswoman or deputy are equivalent terms used in other jurisdictions. The term parliamentarian is also sometimes used for members of parliament, but this may also be used to refer to unelected government officials with specific roles in a parliament and other expert advisers on parliamentary procedure such as the Senate parliamentarian in the United States. The term is aMembers of parliament typically form parliamentary groups, sometimes called caucuses, with members of the same political party.lso used to the characteristic of performing the duties of a member of a legislature, for example: "The two party leaders often disagreed on issues, but both were excellent parliamentarians and cooperated to get many good things done."
The Parliament of Australia is the federal legislature of Australia. It consists of three elements: the monarch of Australia, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. It combines elements from the Westminster system, in which the party or coalition with a majority in the lower house is entitled to form a government, and the United States Congress, which affords equal representation to each of the states, and scrutinises legislation before it can be signed into law.
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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 Senate of Barbados is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Barbados. The Senate is accorded legitimacy by Chapter V of the Constitution of Barbados. It is the smaller of the two chambers. The Senate was established in 1964 to replace a prior body known as the Legislative Council. Besides creating and reviewing Barbadian legislation, the Senate generally reviews approved legislation originating from the House of Assembly. One main constraint on the Senate is that it cannot author monetary or budget-related bills. Most of the non-political appointees to the Senate have been selected by the President of Barbados, from civil society organisations, labour collectives and public associations in Barbados. Prior to Barbados becoming a republic on the 30 November 2021, these functions were performed by the Governor-General, who was the viceroy of the Monarchy of Barbados which has since been abolished.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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