1971 Barbadian general election

General elections were held in Barbados on 9 September 1971.[1] Amendments to the electoral system saw the two-member constituencies previously used replaced by single-member first-past-the-post constituencies.[2] This was also the first election in modern Barbadian history to be contested by only two political parties, not including two independent candidates.[3]

1971 Barbadian general election

9 September 1971

24 seats in the House of Assembly
13 seats needed for a majority
Turnout81.62% (Increase1.92pp)
  First party Second party
 
Leader Errol Barrow Bernard St. John
Party DLP BLP
Last election 14 seats 8 seats
Seats won 18 6
Seat change Increase4 Decrease2
Popular vote 53,295 39,376
Percentage 57.40% 42.41%
Swing Increase7.84pp Increase9.81pp

Results by constituency

Prime Minister before election

Errol Barrow
DLP

Elected Prime Minister

Errol Barrow
DLP

The result was a victory for the Democratic Labour Party, which won 18 of the 24 seats. Despite achieving a larger increase in vote share than its opponent, the Barbados Labour Party lost two seats and its leader, Harold Bernard St. John, was defeated in his constituency of Christ Church South Central.[4] Voter turnout was 81.6%, the highest in the country's history.[1]

Results

PartyVotes%Seats+/โ€“
Democratic Labour Party53,29557.4018+4
Barbados Labour Party39,37642.416โ€“2
Independents1740.1900
Total92,845100.00240
Valid votes92,84598.75
Invalid/blank votes1,1741.25
Total votes94,019100.00
Registered voters/turnout115,18981.62
Source: Nohlen

Further reading

  • Hoyte, Harold, ed. (11 November 2012). "St. Michael holds key to poll victory". Nation Newspaper. Archived from the original on 14 April 2014. Retrieved 1 January 2013.

References

  1. Dieter Nohlen (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p90 ISBN 978-0-19-928357-6
  2. Nohlen, p92
  3. "Barbados General Election Results - 9 September 1971". Caribbean Elections. Archived from the original on 5 January 2022. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  4. Caribbean Elections
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.