BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – Barbadian voters kept with tradition and provided the incumbent party with a second consecutive term in power following a nerve jangling general elections on Thursday.

According to the preliminary results, the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) won 16 of the 30 seats in the elections with the remainder going to the main opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP). In the 2008 general election, the DLP won 20 seats.

Prime Minister Freundel Stuart in thanking supporters for the narrow victory said, “we are not here tonight celebrating the victory because of any sponsorship or support from the …fortune tellers of Barbados, the dividers or event the obeah men of Barbados.

“We celebrating tonight because of the confidence which ordinary men and women….who have not arrogated to themselves the right to what the future holds,” he told supporters, adding “we are celebrating because this organisation during the last five years touched actual lives by its policies and programmes, not to any sample, but to the population itself”.

The results are in stark contrast to the opinion polls that had predicted that the BLP, led by 63-year-old former prime minister Owen Arthur, would have won as many as 20 seats, while the DLP would have gained 13 seats at most.

“The people have spoken …we accept the will of the people,” Arthur said, adding “we were up against a number of factors”.

The results could also change as a recount has been ordered in the St Michael South East constituency where Santia Bradshaw of the BLP won over Patrick Tannis by less than 10 votes.

Prime Minister Stuart reminded supporters “we are not governing in easy circumstances. We had to govern in the context of the worst crisis the world had seen in over 100 years”.

He said he was always confident that the voters would have rebuffed the policies of the opposition and told supporters that with the election over “we are not going to embark on any revenge”.