Mia Mottley during her swearing in on Friday morning.
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Mia Mottley being sworn in as Barbados' new Prime Minister; Social commentator Nadeen Spence
Mia Amor Mottley has been sworn in as Prime Minister of Barbados following the Barbados Labour Party's historic victory in Thursday's General Election.
Ms. Mottley, who is 52 years old, is the first woman to hold the post of Prime Minister of Barbados.
She took the oath of office at Government House.
The Barbados Labour Party won all 30 seats in the House of Assembly.
Miss Mottley indicated that an immediate priority would be the appointment of a Cabinet by Monday.
It is the first election in post-independence Barbados with a clean sweep of seats by a single political party.
Ms Mottley joins the ranks of former Prime Minister of Jamaica Portia Simpson Miller, Dame Eugenia Charles of Dominica, Kamla Persad Bissessar of Trinidad and Tobago as well as Janet Jagan of Guyana as female heads of Government in the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, social commentator Nadeen Spence says civil society and the media in Barbados will have to play a greater role in holding the Barbados Labour Party government accountable in the absence of an opposition in parliament.
"There has to be constitutional arrangements to ensure that the correct, the requisite checks and balances that are needed for governance to be effective, open, transparent are followed through," she argued, adding that the rest of the world would have to wait and see "what space the government makes available for the opposition to participate in the democracy."
Congratulations
Dr. Peter Phillips, President of the People's National Party (PNP), has extended congratulations to Mia Mottley, saying the Barbados Labour Party's landslide victory signals the desire of the people of Barbados for change, renewed hope, the reinvigoration of CARICOM and a strong collective Caribbean voice in the global community.
Dr. Phillips said the BLP's return to power marks a move towards people-centred governance, which is always a welcomed development that benefits all.
Late count
In the meantime, the Electoral and Boundaries Commission (EBC) in Barbados has sought to explain the reasons for the delays in delivering ballot boxes and counting ballots following voting in Thursday's general election.
Counting of the ballots did not get underway until after 10 o'clock Thursday night.
In a statement issued after 1 o'clock Friday morning, the EBC said a late court order requiring Chief Electoral Officer Angela Taylor to add 18 people to the voters' list was among the reasons for the delay.
The EBC said preparing the Addendum to facilitate this process and distributing the registers to various polling stations in several constituencies resulted in a delay in the close of poll in those constituencies.
The vehicles and drivers recruited for the delivery of the ballot boxes containing ballots from the early poll of May 17, had to be redirected to deliver the Addendum, resulting in an even further delay in the delivery of those boxes.
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