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.