2016 Turks and Caicos Islands general election

General elections were held in Turks and Caicos Islands on 15 December 2016.[1] The result was a victory for the People's Democratic Movement (PDM), with Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson becoming the islands' first female Premier.[2] Following the election outgoing Prime Minister Rufus Ewing resigned as Progressive National Party (PNP) leader and quit politics.[3]

15 December 2016
15 out of 21 seats in the House of Assembly
Leader Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson Rufus Ewing Party PDM PNP Leader's seat All-island constituency All-island constituency (lost) Last election 7 8 Seats won 10 5 Seat change 3 3
Premier before election Rufus Ewing PNP Elected Premier Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson PDM

Electoral system

At the time of the election, the House of Assembly had 15 elected members and four appointed members. The 15 elected members were elected by two methods; ten were elected from single-member constituencies, with five elected on an at-large basis, with voters able to vote for up to five candidates at the national level.[4] The four appointed members include one nominated by the Premier, one nominated by the Leader of the Opposition and two members appointed by the Governor.[5]

Campaign

A total of 31 candidates contested the 10 single-member constituencies; the PDM and PNP both ran full slates of 10 candidates, whilst the Progressive Democratic Alliance (PDA) had eight. The remaining three candidates were independents. There were also 21 candidates in the at-large constituency, five each from the PDM and PNP, four from the PDA and seven independents.[6]

Results

Party		District			At-large			Total seats	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	People's Democratic Movement	3,169	51.20	6	13,822	47.28	4	10	+3
	Progressive National Party	2,645	42.74	4	10,342	35.38	1	5	–3
	Progressive Democratic Alliance	243	3.93	0	1,117	3.82	0	0	New
	Independents	132	2.13	0	3,952	13.52	0	0	0
Invalid/blank votes		49	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Total		6,238	100	10	29,233	100	5	15	0
Registered voters/turnout		7,732	80.68	–	–	–	–	–	–
Source: RTC

By constituency

Constituency		Candidate	Party		Votes
1	Grand Turk North	George Lightbourne		PNP	305
		Derek Rolle		PDM	273
		Kwame Odinga Smith		PDA	21
2	Grand Turk South and Saltcay	Edwin Astwood		PDM	399
		Arthur Lightbourne		PNP	276
		Noel Terrence Skippings		PDA	66
		Valerie Jennings		Independent	12
3	South Caicos	Ruth Blackman		PNP	146
		McAllister Eusene Hanchell		Independent	97
		Keno Shamado Forbes		PDM	70
		Christopher Emanuel Hall		PDA	6
4	Middle and North Caicos	Ralph Higgs		PDM	262
		Mark Fulford		PNP	201
5	Leeward (Providenciales)	Akierra Missick		PNP	376
		Ezra Ringo Tyrone Taylor		PDM	289
		Calsada Carolie Johnson		PDA	17
6	The Bight (Providenciales)	Porsha Stubbs-Smith		PNP	285
		George C.D. Pratt		PDM	284
		Dozzlie McLom Delancy		PDA	38
7	Cheshire Hall and Richmond Hill (Providenciales)	Douglas Parnell		PDM	451
		Amanda Misick		PNP	347
		Charles Delancy		PDA	43
8	Blue Hills (Providenciales)	Mixmillian Goldray Ewing		PDM	366
		Claudine Ewing-Pratt		PNP	267
		Ciclyn Been		PDA	37
9	Five Cays (Providenciales)	Sean Rickard Astwood		PDM	470
		Rachel Marshall Taylor		PNP	269
		Bobbie Chambers		PDA	15
10	Wheeland (Providenciales)	Vaden Delroy Williams		PDM	305
		Dameko Canez Dean		PNP	173
		Hudson James Parker		Independent	23
All Island District 5 elected at-large
		Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson		PDM	3,024
		Josephine Connolly		PDM	3,019
		Derek Hugh Taylor		PDM	2,740
		Karen Evadne Malcolm		PDM	2,725
		Washington Misick		PNP	2,335
		Robert A. Been		PDM	2314
		Rufus Ewing		PNP	2234
		John Malcolm		PNP	2011
		Ricardo Don-Hue Gardner		PNP	1901
		Sheba Latrice Wilson		PNP	1861
		Michael Misick		Independent	1629
		Jasmin Walkin		Independent	834
		Sabrina Elizebeth Green		Independent	675
		Oswald Skippings		PDA	549
		Clarence Wesley Selver		Independent	301
		Samuel Iotis Harvey		PDA	255
		Courtney Missick		Independent	240
		Damian Wilson		Independent	206
		Shirley Louise Clarke-Calcano		PDA	178
		Herbert Andrew Swann jr.		PDA	135
		Oscar O’Brien Forbes		Independent	67
Source: RTC

References

1. New date announced for Turks and Caicos general election Jamaica Observer, 31 October 2016
2. Turks and Caicos elects first female premier Caribbean News Now, 16 December 2016
3. Defeated Dr. Rufus Ewing resigns as PNP leader; quits politics Archived 2016-12-21 at the Wayback Machine Sun TCI, 17 December 2016
4. Basic election ballot rules released Archived 2016-12-21 at the Wayback Machine TCI News Now, 3 September 2012
5. House of Assembly Archived 2016-12-20 at the Wayback Machine Government of the Turks & Caicos Islands
6. General Election Results - 15 December 2016 Caribbean Elections