BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP) -- Barbados' main opposition Democratic
                 Labor Party elected a senator as its new leader to replace the party president
                 who resigned over the party's defeat in a recent by-election.

                 Sen. Clyde Mascoll was elected the party's leader Sunday night. He replaced David
                 Thompson, who had led the party since 1994 but announced his resignation after
                 the party lost a September by-election for a Parliament seat in one of its traditional
                 strongholds.

                 Thompson had expressed disappointment that the party lost two consecutive
                 elections in 1994 and 1999, and considered the by-election loss the last straw.

                 "We are getting our act together," Mascoll told a cheering crowd in his acceptance
                 speech Sunday. "This evening I say to you and the rest of Barbados: Take your
                 seats in the theater of politics in Barbados -- the real Democratic Labor Party show
                 is back."

                 Barbados' next elections are not due until 2004.

                 Mascoll, a 41-year-old economist, had 310 votes to 260 votes for his competitor,
                 Branford Taitt, a former president of the party who held Cabinet positions in
                 previous Democratic Labor Party administrations.

                  Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.