Derek Taylor (politician)

Derek Hugh Taylor , OBE (* 1. October 1951 on Grand Turk Iceland ) is a politician of the People's Democratic Movement (PDM) of the Turks and Caicos Islands , among others, in 1980 and again between 1995 and 2003. Chief Minister of the Turks and Caicos Islands was . He was thus the head of government with the so far longest tenure of this in the Caribbean lying British overseas territory .

Life

Taylor, the sixth of seven children, attended Salt City Elementary School and Grand Turk High School , and entered the civil service in 1970. First he was an employee of the tax and customs authorities and later district commissioner for South Caicos , Middle Caicos and North Caicos and most recently as deputy head of the customs authorities (Deputy Collector of Customs) . He was also involved in the Civil Service Association, where he was president for two years and vice-president for seven years.

After retiring from the civil service in 1988, Taylor was elected Member of Parliament (House of Assembly) for People's Democratic Movement (PDM), the islands' oldest political party . In this election, the PDM won eleven of the 13 seats in parliament, after which Oswald Skippings became Chief Minister. This appointed Taylor as Minister for Trade and Development in his cabinet, to which he belonged until the PDM was defeated in the April 1991 elections. He then became an opposition leader .

In the elections of January 31, 1995, the Taylor-led PDM was able to win nine of the 13 seats in the House of Assembly , so that Taylor on February 3, 1995 as the successor to Washington Misick of the Progressive National Party (PNP) himself Chief Minister of the Turks - and Caicos Islands became. In the subsequent elections on March 4, 1999, the PDM received 52.22 percent of the vote and again nine of the 13 parliamentary seats. He was also a member of the Board of Governors of the Caribbean Development Bank ( CDB ) and first-elected Vice President of the OCTA (Overseas Countries and Territories Association) founded on November 17, 2000 . In the elections on April 24, 2003, the PDM again emerged victorious, but received only seven of the 13 parliamentary seats with 50.2 percent. In a by-election on August 7, 2003, the opposition Progressive National Party (PNP) won two more seats and thus had a majority over Chief Minister Taylor's previously ruling People's Democratic Movement (PDM), which only had five seats. As a result, the previous opposition leader Michael Misick took over the office of Chief Minister himself on August 16, 2003. With his tenure of over eight and a half years, Taylor was the head of government with the longest term in office in this British overseas territory located in the Caribbean .

After the election defeat, Taylor, who was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) at the 2000 Millennium celebrations , became the leader of the opposition, with the PDM only winning two of the 15 seats in the February 9, 2007 elections. In July 2012 he resigned from his position as opposition leader, which was then taken over again by Oswald Skippings. In the elections on November 9, 2012, however, the PDM again won seven of the 15 mandates and narrowly missed an election victory. Taylor himself was re-elected Member of Parliament.

Taylor, who is a cousin of the PDM's founder and first chief minister, James Alexander George Smith "Jags" McCartney , is married with three children. He is also involved as a lay preacher in the Methodist churches .

Web links

• Biography in Caribbean Elections
• Entry in rulers.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Turks and Caicos Islands: Governors, Chief Ministers and Prime Ministers
2. ↑ Turks and Caicos Islands: April 24, 2003