Above: the Turks and Caicos House of Assembly

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The long-awaited election in Turks and Caicos has brought the territory’s Progressive National Party a thin majority of seats in the House of Assembly, according to provisional results from Friday’s votes.

The PNP has won a total of eight seats, with the People’s Democratic Movement winning seven seats.

Of the seats at stake, 10 involved individual constituencies, and five were so-called “at-large” votes.

The PDM’s Sharlene Cartwright Robinson received the most votes of any candidate, with 3,427, according to the Governor’s office.

The second-largest vote total came for Rufus Ewing, the leader of the Progressive National Party, and likely the Turks and Caicos Islands’ next Premier if the votes are confirmed following the recount.

One candidate, Oswald Skippings, the leader of the PDM party, has requested a recount of the All Island vote. He did not win a seat in the election, according to the results.

That will take place on Monday at Dillon Hall in Grand Turk.

The vote was the first since the United Kingdom imposed direct rule on the territory in 2009 following allegations of widespread corruption in TCI’s government under former Premier Michael Misick, then-leader of the Progressive National Party.

An Interpol arrest warrant was issued earlier this year for Misick, whose whereabouts are currently unknown.