eview of legislative acts

National holiday: Independence Day, 30 November (1966)

Executive branch: British monarch, governor general, prime minister,
deputy prime minister, Cabinet

Legislative branch: bicameral Parliament consists of an upper house or
Senate and a lower house or House of Assembly

Judicial branch: Supreme Court of Judicature

Leaders:
Chief of State--Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952),
represented by Governor General Sir Hugh SPRINGER (since 24 February
1984);

Head of Government--Prime Minister Lloyd Erskine SANDIFORD (since
2 June 1987)

Political parties and leaders: Democratic Labor Party (DLP), Erskine
Sandiford; Barbados Labor Party (BLP), Henry Forde; National Democratic
Party (NDP), Richie Haynes

Suffrage: universal at age 18

Elections:
House of Assembly--last held 28 May 1986 (next to be held by May 1991);
results--DLP 59.4%, BLP 40.6%; seats--(27 total) DLP 24, BLP 3; note--a
split in the DLP in February 1989 resulted in the formation of the NDP,
changing the status of seats to DLP 20, NDP 4, BLP 3

Communists: negligible

Other political or pressure groups: Industrial and General Workers Union,
Bobby Clarke; People's Progressive Movement, Eric Sealy; Workers' Party of
Barbados, Dr. George Belle

Member of: ACP, CARICOM, Commonwealth, FAO, G-77, GATT, IADB, IBRD, ICAO,
IDB--Inter-American Development Bank, IFAD, IFC, ILO, IMF, IMO, INTELSAT,
INTERPOL, ISO, ITU, IWC--International Wheat Council, NAM, OAS, PAHO, SELA,
UN, UNESCO, UPU, WHO, WMO

Diplomatic representation: Ambassador Sir William DOUGLAS; Chancery at
2144 Wyoming Avenue NW, Washington DC 20008; telephone (202) 939-9200 through
9202; there is a Barbadian Consulate General in New York and a Consulate
in Los Angeles;
US--Ambassador-nominee G. Philip HUGHES; Embassy at Canadian
Imperial Bank of Commerce Building, Broad Street, Bridgetown (mailing
address is P. O. Box 302, Bridgetown or FPO Miami 34054); telephone (809)
436-4950 through 4957

Flag: three equal vertical bands of blue (hoist side), yellow, and blue
with the head of a black trident centered on the gold band; the trident head
represents independence and a break with the past (the colonial coat of arms
contained a complete trident)

- Economy
Overview: A per capita income of $5,250 gives Barbados
the highest standard of living of all the small island states of the
eastern Caribbean. Historically, the economy was based on the cultivation
o