PM Mottley reverses exit plan, announces decision to seek third term

Prime Min­is­ter Mia Mot­t­ley will lead the Bar­ba­dos Labour Par­ty (BLP) in­to the next gen­er­al elec­tion, af­ter all, she an­nounced Sat­ur­day night.

Speak­ing at a BLP ral­ly to cel­e­brate the par­ty’s St James North by-elec­tion vic­to­ry, the 59-year-old leader told sup­port­ers that al­though she said in 2022 that the cur­rent term would be her last, the grav­i­ty of na­tion­al and glob­al chal­lenges and the wide­spread ap­peals from cit­i­zens across the coun­try had com­pelled her to re­main.

In 2022, I told you that that would be my last time. I did so be­cause I had just gone through…six or sev­en months of true stress,” Mot­t­ley said, ref­er­enc­ing the emo­tion­al strain she en­dured af­ter the death of her broth­er. “I came to un­der­stand that true lead­er­ship is nev­er about com­fort. It is about call­ing, it is about tim­ing, and it is about ser­vice.”