TURKS & CAICOS — The main opposition Progressive National Party (PNP) secured at landslide victory in the Turks and Caicos Islands’ general elections yesterday, The Jamaica Gleaner reported on Saturday, February 20.
Led by businessman Charles Washington Misick, the PNP obtained a 14 to one victory over the incumbent People’s Democratic Movement (PDM).
The territory’s supervisor of elections, Dudley Lewis, said the opposition party won nine of the 10 electoral district seats and all five of the At-Large seats.
Misick, 70, is a former chief minister and the brother of former Premier Michael Misick.
The PDM, in a major defeat, saw their leader, Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson, who was elected the country’s first female premier in 2016, losing her seat.
The only successful PDM candidate was former health minister Edwin Astwood, who won the Grand Turk South.
In a statement today, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) said the CARICOM Elections Observation Mission (CEOM), which monitored the polls, had reported that the process was free and fair “and the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands must be commended for this.”
“The peacefulness of the elections that transpired on 19 February 2021 reflected the tranquillity of the society of the Turks and Caicos Islands,” said the three-member CEOM team that was deployed to observe the electoral process across the territory.
