Joseph Junior Sylvester Atherley (born 26 February 1954) is a Barbadian religious minister and politician who served as

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

in the

House of Assembly of Barbados 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 (or first-past-the-post) syst ...

from 2018 to 2022, and as leader of the

People's Party for Democracy and Development The People's Party for Democracy and Development (PdP), abbreviated as the People's Party, is a political party in Barbados established on 8 June 2019 and led by Joseph Atherley. At its foundation, it served as the main opposition party in bot ...

since 8 June 2019. Atherley was elected in

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as a candidate of the

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). As the BLP won all seats in the election, Atherley resigned from the party to serve as parliamentary opposition. He was previously an MP for the BLP from 16 February 1999 to 12 February 2008, where he was the first Christian clergyman to be elected to the House of Assembly since independence.

Early life

Born on 26 February 1954 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). ...

, Atherley received his early education at the Federal High School. He later studied at the Christian Union Church of the West Indies Bible College, Chapel Christian University (USA), the

University of the West Indies at Cave Hill University of the West Indies at Cave Hill is a public research university in Cave Hill, Barbados. It is one of five general campuses in the University of the West Indies system. It was the third campus to be established by the UWI System, follow ...

, and the Haggai Institute of Leadership Training in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. Atherley serves as Senior Minister of the Better Life Assembly and is a member of the Evangelical Holiness Christian Community. He is also the Barbados regional head of the Christian Union Church of the West Indies. Atherley is married to Esther Hinds-Atherley. He has two sons.

Politics

As a member of the

(BLP), Atherley first entered Parliament in the

1999 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1999. * 1999 electoral calendar Africa * 1999 Algerian presidential election * 1999 Botswana general election * 1999 Beninese parliamentary election * 1999 Central African Republic presidential elect ...

. He was elected from the Saint Michael West constituency, defeating

Branford Taitt Sir Branford Mayhew Taitt, KA (May 15, 1938 – February 15, 2013) was a Barbadian politician who served as a cabinet minister and former President of the Senate of Barbados. He served as Minister of Trade, Industry and Commerce from 1971 to 1976 ...

of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP). Atherley was the first Christian minister to be elected to Parliament. He was re-elected in

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by a slightly smaller margin against the DLP's Michael A. Carrington. During his time in Parliament, Atherley was Parliamentary Secretary in the Attorney General's Office and Home Office, and Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office under

Owen Arthur Owen Seymour Arthur, PC (17 October 194927 July 2020) was a Barbadian politician who served as the fifth prime minister of Barbados from 6 September 1994 to 15 January 2008. He is the longest-serving Barbadian prime minister to date. He also ...

. He also served as First Vice Chairman of the BLP from 2004 to 2005. Atherley sought to retain his seat in the 2008 election, but was defeated this time by Carrington. He returned as a BLP candidate in

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, but lost to Carrington. In the 2018 elections, Atherley won back the St. Michael West seat. The BLP won all the seats in the

House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible governme ...

; no party had done so since independence. On 25 May 2018, BLP leader

Mia Mottley Mia Amor Mottley, (born 1 October 1965) is a Barbadian politician and attorney who has served as the eighth prime minister of Barbados since 2018 and as Leader of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) since 2008. Mottley is the first woman to hold ...

was sworn in as Barbados' first female prime minister. On 31 May, less than a week after the swearing-in of the new government, Atherley informed the prime minister of his intention to leave the BLP and become an independent parliamentarian. Due to the absence of other non-BLP MPs in Parliament, Atherley was sworn in the next day as

, which entitled him to receive the parliamentary prerogatives of the office, an increased annual salary of BB$129,000, and the power to advise on the appointment of the two minority representatives in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. On 8 June 2019, Atherley announced the formation of the

(PdP) as the new main opposition party under his leadership. His appointed senators Crystal Drakes and Caswell Franklyn were members as well. Atherley did not stand for re-election to his parliamentary seat of St. Michael West in the snap election called in 2022, and his seat was won back by the Barbados Labor Party.

References

External links

Parliament Profile
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