Electoral System

The 30 members of the House of Assembly were elected in single-member constituencies by first-past-the-post voting. There was no fixed election date in effect in Barbados at this time; hence, the choice of election date is the prerogative of the Prime Minister.

Background

The Writs for the Elections were issued on 25 April 2003 appointing Nomination Day as Tuesday, 6 May 2003 and Election Day as Wednesday, 21 May 2003. On Monday, 28 April 2003 the Governor General also appointed Thursday, 15 May 2003 as the Polling Day for Foreign Service Electors and Special Polling Day for Election Officers.

There were 220,093 registered electors, 104,304 males and 115,789 females.

Political Parties & Candidates

A total of 62 candidates contested the election. The two major parties - the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) - led by Owen Artur, and the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) - led by Clyde Mascoll - both presented a full slate of 30 candidates. There were also 2 independent candidates.

Election Campaign

For the May 2003 election, the campaign mainly focused on economic issues.  In this Caribbean island, with some of the highest taxes in the region, the two parties contesting the election pledged to add jobs and cut taxes.  In 2002, the Labour Party's government had presented a plan to reduce income taxes from 25% to 22.5% in 2003 and then to 20% in 2004.

Although Barbados has one of the region's strongest economies, unemployment in 2002 stood at 10.3 per cent, up from 9.9 per cent in 2001.  During the campaign, Prime Minister Owen Arthur suggested diversifying the economy - based largely on tourism, banking, and insurance - by proposing incentives to artists and craftsmen to encourage small enterprises, while the opposition accused the government of wasteful spending, and suggested cutting taxes on workers and providing training for the workforce to ensure Barbados remains competitive.

Results

In the 2003 legislative elections, the Labour Party (BLP) also won a landslide victory, as it emerged with 23 seats out of 30.  Although it was a convincing victory for the BLP, the opposition DLP was able to pick up 5 new seats for 7 previously.

On 23 May 2003, Owen Arthur was sworn in as Prime Minister for his third term in office.  Three days later, all the 17 members of the Cabinet were as well officially sworn in.

Voter Turnout

Voter turnout was 61.03%.