History
The DLP was founded in 1955 by Errol Barrow, James Cameron Tudor, Frederick "Sleepy" Smith and 26 others. Once members of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP), these 26 broke away to form this more left-leaning alternative. However, as a result of this common origin, the two parties have been and remain ideologically similar. In the 1956 general elections the party received 19.9% of the vote and won four seats. In the next elections in 1961 it received fewer votes than the BLP, but won a majority of the seats in Parliament, with Barrow becoming Premier.
After the party retained power in the 1966 elections (this time with a plurality of the vote), Barrow became the country's first Prime Minister. The party won a third successive election in 1971, but lost power to the BLP in 1976. They remained in opposition until victory in the 1986 elections, in which they won 24 of the 27 seats. They remained in power following the 1991 elections, but were defeated by the BLP in the 1994 elections. They returned to power again in 2008.
Read more about this topic: Democratic Labour Party (Barbados)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)
“Bias, point of view, fury—are they ... so dangerous and must they be ironed out of history, the hills flattened and the contours leveled? The professors talk ... about passion and point of view in history as a Calvinist talks about sin in the bedroom.”
—Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897–1973)
“In the history of the United States, there is no continuity at all. You can cut through it anywhere and nothing on this side of the cut has anything to do with anything on the other side.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)