Akierra Missick | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Deputy Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands | |
In office 13 November 2012 –20 December 2016 | |
Governor | Ric Todd Peter Beckingham John Freeman |
Preceded by | office suspended |
Succeeded by | Sean Rickard Astwood |
Minister of Infrastructure,Housing Planning and Development | |
In office 22 February 2022 –8 November 2022 | |
Premier | Washington Misick |
Preceded by | Sean Astwood |
Leader of Government Business | |
In office 22 February 2021 –8 November 2022 | |
Premier | Washington Misick |
MHA for Leeward &Long Bay | |
Assumed office 12 November 2012 | |
Preceded by | Galmo Williams |
Personal details | |
Born | U.S. | May 11,1983
Political party | Progressive National Party |
Nickname | AK |
Akierra Mary Deanne Missick (born 1983) is a Turks and Caicos Islands lawyer and politician. [1] She served as Deputy Premier and Minister of Education from 2012 to 2016 and Leader of Government Business and Minister of Infrastructure from 2021 to 2022. A member of the Progressive National Party,Missick has served as the Member of the House of Assembly (MHA) for Leeward &Long Bay ED5 since 2012.
Missick was called to the bar of England and Wales and the bar of the Turks and Caicos Islands. She works as an associate for the law firm of Misick &Stanbrook,where she specialised in dispute resolution,company law,medical law,and personal injury law. [2]
Missick became a member of the Progressive National Party in 2002. [1] She was formerly Secretary-General of the PNP. She resigned from that position in August 2009 to protest statements made by Michael Misick but continued her membership in the party. [3]
In August 2012,Missick announced that she would be seeking the PNP's nomination to stand in Leeward District 5,Providenciales for the 2012 general election. [1] Due to provisions in the new 2011 Constitution of the Turks and Caicos Islands,this required her to renounce any foreign allegiance she held by virtue of her act. As Attorney-General Huw Shepheard commented,those who were merely born in foreign countries would not be affected by these changes,but those who had applied for foreign passports as adults would be. Missick,though the only U.S.-born candidate,was far from the only one to had to take quick action to renounce foreign citizenship;Bahamas-born People's Democratic Movement deputy leader Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson and several other members of her party were also affected,and the newly formed People's Progressive Party stood in danger of having all of its candidates disqualified. [4] Missick renounced U.S. citizenship in mid-October,and was officially nominated on 25 October. [5] She emerged victorious in the election,and the week afterward was named as Deputy Premier and Minister of Education,Youth,Sports and Culture. [6]
Missick was re-elected as the Member of the House of Assembly for Leeward-Long Bay ED5 in the 2016 general election and the 2021 general election. She was appointed by Premier Charles Misick to serve as the Leader of Government Business and Minister of Infrastructure,Housing Planning and Development on 22 January 2021. [7] [8]
Missick's mother is Doreen Missick,also a Turks and Caicos Islands politician,and a former member of the Advisory Council. [9] Missick was born in the United States,and thus had jus soli citizenship there. [10] She attended Ona Glinton Primary School on Grand Turk Island,Iris Stubbs Primary School on South Caicos,and MAST Academy in Miami,Florida in the United States. Following that she moved to England to continue her schooling,doing her A Levels at Notre Dame Catholic Sixth Form College,her LL.B at the University of Nottingham from 2002 to 2005,and her Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of Court School of Law in London. [11]
The Turks and Caicos Islands are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Islands and smaller Turks Islands,two groups of tropical islands in the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean and northern West Indies. They are known primarily for tourism and as an offshore financial centre. The resident population in 2023 was estimated by The World Factbook at 59,367,making it the third-largest of the British overseas territories by population. However,according to a Department of Statistics estimate in 2022,the population was 47,720.
Michael Eugene Misick is a Turks and Caicos Islander politician who was the 7th Chief Minister of the Turks and Caicos Islands from 15 August 2003 to 9 August 2006 and was the 1st Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands from 9 August 2006 to 23 March 2009. Misick is a member of the Progressive National Party (PNP) and became chief minister when his party,after eight years as the opposition party,gained two parliamentary seats in by-elections. In addition to being premier,he was also the minister for Civil Aviation,Commerce and Development,Planning,District Administration,Broadcasting Commission,Tourist Board,Turks and Caicos Investment Agency,and Tourism. Several other members of Misick's family have been politicians in the Turks and Caicos Islands,and important leaders in the PNP. Washington Misick,his brother,is the current Premier,former Chief Minister and former Minister of Finance.
Before European colonization,the Turks and Caicos Islands were inhabited by Taíno and Lucayan peoples. The first recorded European sighting of the islands now known as the Turks and Caicos occurred in 1512. In the subsequent centuries,the islands were claimed by several European powers with the British Empire eventually gaining control. For many years the islands were governed indirectly through Bermuda,the Bahamas,and Jamaica. When the Bahamas gained independence in 1973,the islands received their own governor,and have remained a separate autonomous British Overseas Territory since. In August 2009,the United Kingdom suspended the Turks and Caicos Islands' self-government following allegations of ministerial corruption. Home rule was restored in the islands after the November 2012 elections.
Politics of the Turks and Caicos Islands takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic dependency,whereby as of August 9,2006 the Premier is the head of government,and of a multi-party system. The islands are an internally self-governing overseas territory of the United Kingdom. The United Nations Committee on Decolonization includes the Turks and Caicos Islands on the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Legislative Council.
The Progressive National Party is a political party in the Turks and Caicos Islands,currently led by Washington Misick. The PNP holds 14 of the 15 seats in the House of Assembly and has been the government since 20 Feb 2021.
Charles Washington Misick is a Turks and Caicos Islander politician who has been the 5th Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands since 20 February 2021. He has been the leader of the Progressive National Party since 20 December 2016. He previously served as the 5th Chief Minister of the Turks and Caicos Islands from 3 April 1991 to 31 January 1995,was Minister of Finance,Trade and Investment from 2012 to 2016 and Leader of the Opposition from 1995 to 2003 and again from 2016 to 2021. Misick has been a MHA for the All Island District since November 2012 and was previously an MHA for Grand Turk from 1991 to 1999.
Ariel Misick is a Turks and Caicos Islands politician and former minister of development and commerce. He served on a four-member interim Advisory Council from July 1986 to 3 March 1988 after two previous Chief Ministers were forced to resign and ministerial government in the territory was suspended. He is now a partner at the law firm of Misick &Stanbrook. Misick was a member of the National Democratic Alliance.
The Turks and Caicos Islands are divided into five administrative districts,and the Island of Grand Turk;four of these are headed by District Commissioners,and Providenciales District is run by the Permanent Secretary of the Office of the Premier in Providenciales. The Island of Grand Turk is directly administered by the TCI Government.
General elections were held in the Turks and Caicos Islands on 9 February 2007. The result was a victory for the ruling Progressive National Party (PNP),which won thirteen of the fifteen seats in the House of Assembly. PNP leader Michael Misick remained Premier.
The People's Democratic Movement is a political party in the Turks and Caicos Islands founded by James Alexander George Smith McCartney and Lewis Edwin Astwood III. The party is led by the current opposition leader,Edwin Astwood.
The Honourable Galmo "Gilley" Williams is a Turks and Caicos Islander politician who served as the 2nd Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands from 23 March 2009 to 14 August 2009.
Gordon Geoffrey Wetherell is a British diplomat who was the former Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands. He was appointed on 5 August 2008,replacing Richard Tauwhare in the position. On 14 August 2009,he assumed direct political control when the British government imposed direct rule on the islands in response to a Foreign Office inquiry which found "information in abundance pointing to a high probability of systematic corruption or serious dishonesty" in the islands' administration under former Premier,Michael Misick.
General elections were held in Turks and Caicos Islands on 9 November 2012. The PNP won the election,winning eight seats with the PDM winning seven. The PNP won most of its seats by narrow margins over the PDM,while the PDM won its seats by wide margins over the PNP,with the result that despite winning fewer seats and thereby losing the election,the PDM garnered more overall votes nationwide.
The Director of Public Prosecutions is an officer of the Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands whose role is to prosecute criminal offences. The role was newly created by the 2011 Constitution.
The Cabinet of the Turks and Caicos Islands comprises the ministers who advise the governor on government affairs. It was known as the Executive Council under the 1988 Constitution,and was given its current name in the 2006 Constitution. The Cabinet was disbanded in 2009 when self-government in the Turks and Caicos Islands was suspended. It was reconstituted after the 2012 election.
The Constitution of the Turks and Caicos Islands,in its present form,was passed in 2011.
Sharlene Linette Cartwright-Robinson JP is a Turks and Caicos Islander politician and lawyer who served as the 4th Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands from 20 December 2016 to 20 February 2021. She was the territory's first female premier. She was also the first woman to become first,deputy head,and then,head of the People's Democratic Movement (PDM).
Rosita Beatrice Missick-Butterfield,was a Turks and Caicos Islander who served as the first woman Member of Parliament and Speaker of the House of Assembly of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
General elections were held in Turks and Caicos Islands on 15 December 2016. The result was a victory for the People's Democratic Movement (PDM),with Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson becoming the islands' first female Premier. Following the election outgoing Prime Minister Rufus Ewing resigned as Progressive National Party (PNP) leader and quit politics.
The second W. Misick ministry began on 24 February 2021,four days after Washington Misick was sworn in as Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands by Governor Nigel Dakin,where he invited him to form a new administration following the 2021 general election,in which the Progressive National Party was voted into power with a supermajority of 14 seats in the House of Assembly. Misick led government once before after the 1991 general election.