GEORGETOWN, (CMC):
The 15-member regional integration grouping, CARICOM, has congratulated the leader of the United National Congress (UNC), Kamla Persad Bissessar, on her victory following general elections in Trinidad and Tobago on Monday.
CARICOM said it was extending “congratulations” to Persad Bissessar “on her resounding win in the general elections” saying “the decisive victory is a clear mandate from the people of Trinidad and Tobago as the country continues its forward journey.
The Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) in Trinidad and Tobago has not yet issued the official results from the elections, but preliminary figures show that the UNC-led coalition had won 26 seats in the 41-member parliament with the outgoing People’s National Movement (PNM) government, winning 13 seats. The other two seats were won by the recently formed People’s Tobago Party on the sister isle.
CARICOM had sent an observer team to monitor the elections that outgoing Prime Minister Stuart Young had called four months ahead of the second anniversary of the PNM’s second consecutive victory in August 2020.
Persad Bissessar, 73, is returning to government after she headed the coalition People’s Partnership government between 2010-15 and in its statement, CARICOM also congratulated the “people of Trinidad and Tobago on the peaceful exercise of their democratic rights.
”We look forward to welcoming Prime Minister-elect Persad Bissessar to the Conference of Heads of Government, and to her participation, as we continue to tackle emerging geopolitical issues, and seek to further improve the welfare and well-being of the people of the region,” according to the statement issued by the Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat.