Businessman Charles Washington Misick led the Progressive National Party (PNP) to a landslide 14-to-1 victory over the incumbent People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) in the Turks and Caicos Islands general elections held Friday.
Supervisor of Elections Dudley Lewis confirmed on Saturday that the PNP won 9 of the 10 electoral district seats and all 5 of the At Large seats.
PDM leader Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson, who was elected the country’s first female premier in 2016, lost her seat. Former health minister Edwin Astwood, who won the Grand Turk South seat, was the only successful PDM candidate.
The 70-year-old Misick is a former chief minister and brother of former premier Michael Misick.
During a pre-Election Day virtual rally on the night of Thursday, Feb. 18, Misick said “every survey in the last two weeks points to a PNP victory”.
He told viewers he will be sworn in as the next premier on Monday, then on Tuesday he will submit the names of Cabinet ministers to Governor Nigel Dakin and have a “fully-functioning” PNP government by Wednesday.
“I can feel victory in my bones! I can appreciate, and I am thankful, for the confidence that I see that you the people of TCI are willing to place in my leadership and the PNP,” Misick predicted. “We are about to witness the end of an ineffective government whose meandering has left you demoralized, but take courage because you have a reason now to hope and that hope is because of the vote that you will mark for the Progressive National Party (PNP).”
