In Barbados, Mara Thompson, widow of the late Prime Minister David Thompson, has been selected as the candidate of the governing Democratic Labour Party (DLP) to contest a January 20 by-election in the island’s St John’s constituency. Thompson will be going up against the Barbados Labour Party’s (BLP) Hudson Griffith, hoping that she will be able to win the seat that was held by her husband until his recent death.

She received 60 of the 69 votes cast by DLP constituency branch members in the party’s candidate selection process, with the DLP’s general council later unanimously ratifying her nomination.

The Daily Herald reported that for weeks after the death of her husband on October 23, 2010, speculation had been rife about a successor for the 48-year-old leader, who held the seat since the passing in 1987 of the then Prime Minister and Father of Independence Errol Barrow. Soon afterwards, Mrs. Thompson made her intentions public, stating, “I am ready to represent the people of St John just as my late, beloved husband did.”

For original articles, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/caribbean/news/story/2011/01/110103_ambriefs.shtml and http://www.thedailyherald.com/regional/2-news/11969-mara-thompson-to-contest-st-john-by-election-for-dlp.html