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.
The West Indies Federation,also known as the West Indies,the Federation of the West Indies or the West Indian Federation,was a short-lived political union that existed from 3 January 1958 to 31 May 1962. Various islands in the Caribbean that were part of the British Empire,including Trinidad and Tobago,Barbados,Jamaica,and those on the Leeward and Windward Islands,came together to form the Federation,with its capital in Port of Spain,Trinidad and Tobago. The expressed intention of the Federation was to create a political unit that would become independent from Britain as a single state —possibly similar to Canada,the Federation of Australia,or the Central African Federation. Before that could happen,the Federation collapsed due to internal political conflicts over how it would be governed or function viably. The formation of a West Indian Federation was encouraged by the United Kingdom,but also requested by West Indian nationalists.
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.
Hazen Robert Argue was a Canadian politician who served in the House of Commons and the Senate. He was first elected as a Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) Member of Parliament (MP) in 1945 and was the last leader of the party,from 1960 to 1961. He crossed the floor to the Liberal Party in 1962 and was defeated in 1963. In 1966 he was appointed to the Senate. He entered the federal cabinet in 1980,as the only Saskatchewan representative,with responsibilities for the Canadian Wheat Board. He is well known for being a strong proponent of the proposed Canadian annexation of the Turks and Caicos Islands. He was the first senator ever to have been charged with fraud,in 1989. The charges were eventually dropped as he had been suffering from cancer for a year;he died shortly thereafter in 1991.
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 majority of the population of the Turks and Caicos Islands are Christian. They include Protestant 72.8%,Baptists 35.8%,Church of God 11.7%,Roman Catholics 11.4%,Anglicans 10%,Methodists 9.3%,Seventh-Day Adventists 6%,Jehovah's Witnesses 1.8%,and Other 14%
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.
Norman B. Saunders is a Turks and Caicos Islander former politician who served as the 3rd Chief Minister of the Turks and Caicos Islands from 4 November 1980 to 28 March 1985. Saunders is also the longest-serving Member of the House of Assembly in the Turks and Caicos Islands,nearing 50 years of service,the first Chief Minister to win back-to-back elections with a resounding 8-3 victories at the polls in 1980 and 1984,the only ever politician in the nation to win as an independent candidate,and the first leader of the opposition.
James Alexander George Smith McCartney,also known as J. A. G. S. McCartney or "Jags" McCartney,was a politician from the Turks and Caicos Islands. He was the first Chief Minister of the Turks and Caicos Islands and held that position from 31 August 1976 until 9 May 1980,when he died when the private plane he was in crashed near Vineland,New Jersey,while flying from Washington,D.C. to Atlantic City,New Jersey.
Clement Howell was a politician from the Turks and Caicos Islands. He served on a four-member interim advisory council beginning in July 1986,after two previous chief ministers were forced to resign and the ministerial government in the territory was suspended.
General elections were held in the Turks and Caicos Islands on 24 April 2003. The result was initially a victory for the ruling People's Democratic Movement (PDM),which won seven of the thirteen seats in the Legislative Council,with PDM leader Derek Hugh Taylor remaining Chief Minister. However,a court order resulted in the results in South Caicos North and Five Cays Providenciales being annulled. The opposition PNP won both seats in the subsequent by-elections and subsequently formed a government in August with Michael Misick becoming Chief Minister.
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 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.
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 the Turks and Caicos Islands on 3 March 1988. They were the first after the suspension of the islands' constitution between 1986 and 1988,which followed Chief Minister Norman Saunders leaving office in March 1985 after being arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling and the next Chief Minister Nathaniel Francis resigning in July 1986 after a British parliamentary inquiry accused him of corruption.
General elections were held in the Turks and Caicos Islands on 2 February 1995. The result was a victory for the opposition People's Democratic Movement (PDM),which won eight of the thirteen seats in the Legislative Council. Following the elections,PDM leader Derek Hugh Taylor became Chief Minister.
Paula-Mae Weekes is a Trinidadian politician and jurist who was the sixth president of Trinidad and Tobago from 2018 to 2023. She is the first female President of Trinidad and Tobago,as well as the second female head of state in Trinidad and Tobago after Elizabeth II and the second female president of African descent in the Americas following Ertha Pascal-Trouillot.
