_{TnT Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissesar}

by William Ysaguirre (Freelance Writer)

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Apr. 29, 2025

Congratulatory messages have been pouring in from the Caribbean Community and the Commonwealth to Prime Minister-elect Hon. Kamla Persad-Bissessar of Trinidad and Tobago, whose party—the United National Congress (UNC), won a decisive and resounding victory in that country’s general elections held Monday, April 28. Persad-Bissessar had previously served as the islands’ Prime Minister from May 2010 to September 2015.

Other CARICOM states congratulated the Trinidadian people on having peacefully exercised their democratic right, which has given the UNC a clear mandate to move the country forward on its journey. The UNC won 26 of the 41 seats in parliament, while the People’s National Movement, which had ruled from 2015-2025, won 13 seats. It was the first national election held since the Elections and Boundaries Commission had conducted a re-districting exercise, realigning the boundaries of 16 electoral constituencies, and renaming 5 of them.

The CARICOM secretariat welcomed Prime Minister-elect Persad Bissessar to participate at the next Heads of Government conference, as CARICOM continues to tackle emerging geopolitical issues, and looks for ways to further improve the welfare and well-being of the people of the Caribbean.

Persad-Bissessar is an attorney by profession and an educator, who served as Leader of the Opposition (UNC) from September 2015 to March 18, 2025, when parliament was dissolved. She has broken several barriers, becoming Trinidad’s first woman prime minister, attorney general, and opposition leader. She was the first woman to chair the Commonwealth of Nations and the first woman of Indian descent to become prime minister of a country outside India and the wider subcontinent.