General elections were held in
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...
on 4 December 1961.
[Nohlen, D (2005) ''Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I'', p90 ] They were the first held after Barbados was granted full
self-government
__NOTOC__
Self-governance, self-government, or self-rule is the ability of a person or group to exercise all necessary functions of regulation without intervention from an external authority. It may refer to personal conduct or to any form of ...
earlier in the year. 24 MPs were elected across twelve two-member constituencies, using the
block vote method.
Although the incumbent
Barbados Labour Party
The Barbados Labour Party (BLP), colloquially known as the "Bees", is a social democratic political party in Barbados established in 1938. Led by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, it is the governing party of Barbados and the sole ruling party i ...
(BLP) received more votes, the
non-proportional electoral system allowed the opposition
Democratic Labour Party (DLP) to win 14 of the 24 seats and form a government for the first time. Among the defeated BLP candidates was the Premier
Hugh Gordon Cummins, who lost his St. Thomas seat. This was also the last time an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
was elected to the Assembly, with trade union leader
Frank Leslie Walcott winning a seat in the St. Peter constituency.
[''Caribbean Elections''] Voter turnout was 61.3%.
[
]
Results
References
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...
1961 in Barbados
Elections in Barbados
West Indies Federation
December 1961 events in North America
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