SOMBRE CAMP. Members of the defeated Barbados Labour Party gathered at party headquarters in Roebuck Street for a Press briefing yesterday. Here, some of the candidates – winners as well as losers – chatting just before facing the media. (Picture by Charles Pitt-Grant.)

AFTER A quarter of a century in public life, former Prime Minister Owen Arthur wants to be "just an ordinary citizen".

He made this admission yesterday, as he announced he was handing over "the mantle of leadership" of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) to former Deputy Prime Minister Mia Mottley.

"To have been a Prime Minister for three terms is just extraordinary," he said during a news conference at the BLP's headquarters on Roebuck Street, Bridgetown.

"When I came to public life in 1983, I didn't have any ambition or expectation to lead either this party or the country . . . and that I have been given the opportunity is something that I am really grateful for.

"But I look forward now to being Citizen Owen Arthur again."

Arthur reported he would spend the full five years in Parliament and would "use my influence to help my party and help my country in any way that I can".

Arthur's party won ten of 30 seats at stake in last Tuesday's general election.

During the media briefing, that was attended by several former Government ministers and the BLP's campaign manager Dame Billie Miller, he spoke highly of the BLP's record of achievement.

"On reflection, I don't know that there was much more that we could humanly have accomplished in three terms," he said, while pointing to his Government's achievement on reducing unemployment and poverty.

"I can't claim that the Government that I led would have done everything and that we have brought the end of history, so to speak . . . .

"But I think that there is enough accomplishment across every sphere that a foundation has been made that Barbados can in fact be taken to a higher height."

He said that in areas including education, his Government had left "clearly drawn" plans on which action could be taken.

"We are not forcing these on the new Government as their priorities, but we felt that they were sufficiently thought through that they could be the subject of future action." (TY)