The Constitution requires it at least 14-days following the
General Election and on Friday, the newly elected Progressive National Party
government will convene not indoors for its first sitting of the House of
Assembly but outdoors.
“Cabinet has approved, that Her Excellency the Governor
(Any Williams – Acting) can issue a proclamation to actually re-locate the
House of Assembly for the ceremonial swearing in to the parade grounds in Grand
Turk so that we can have more space and the ability to social distance as a lot
of interest has been expressed since the General Election of persons who would
like to attend the ceremony,” said Akierra Missick, Minister of Infrastructure,
Housing, Planning and Development.
Traditionally, this is a ‘standing room only’ event for the
Turks and Caicos with official regional government delegations flying in to
personally congratulate a new, duly elected administration. Much of that will be either missing or
diminished due to the mandatory precautions in place amidst the Covid-19
pandemic.
“Obviously we cannot accommodate everyone who wants to
attend so we will be streaming the ceremony on the Premier’s Facebook page, as
well as RTC and the House of Assembly’s normal parliamentary streaming page,”
said the Government’s Leader of Business in the House of Assembly, Hon Akierra
Missick.
“Because the House of Assembly is the citadel of democracy
of these islands, the decision was taken to relocate it outside so that we
could adhere to the protocols, keep everyone safe, follow the rules but also
allow the people to see the people’s house.”
The PNP Government administration is, as expected, not
revealing its picks for Speaker of the House of Assembly or Deputy Speaker as
yet but there was a bit more insight from the Minister of Infrastructure about
the Speech from the Throne.
“That one is going to be interesting. As we had campaigned on and the Premier has
said, we want to increase our transparency as a government and the Freedom of
Information Act is one of the paramount pieces of legislation that we will be
seeking to achieve within our first quarter as we had pledged. So you will hear
an indication of our Government’s priority in terms of legislation.”
The First Sitting of the new PNP Government, led by Hon
Charles Washington Misick, Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands is Friday
March 5, 2021 at 10 o’ clock in the morning.
