The Rt. Hon. Perry G. Christie was sworn in today as the new Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas at a ceremony held at Government House. The Prime Minister’s Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) won the national elections held on Monday, May 7th with Mr. Christie also securing the candidacy for the Centreville constituency. He previously served as Prime Minister between 2002-2007.
Outgoing Prime Minister Hubert A. Ingraham conceded the elections last night, also announcing that he will resign from active politics.
Prime Minister Christie said at Government House today that his full slate of Cabinet Ministers will be announced by the end of the week.
About the Prime Minister
The Rt. Hon. Perry Gladstone Christie was born in Nassau on August 21st, 1943.
Named Senator by Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Sir Lynden Pindling in November, 1974 he is believed to have been the youngest Bahamian ever appointed to the Senate. Mr. Christie served in that capacity until June, 1977. In January of that year he was appointed Chairman of the Gaming Board. Receiving the PLP’s nomination for the Centreville constituency in the 1977 general election, Mr. Christie was elected Member of Parliament for that constituency, and shortly after appointed Minister of Health and National Insurance. During the June, 1982 general election, he was re-elected Member of Parliament for Centreville, and once again was appointed to the Prime Minister’s Cabinet, as Minister of Tourism. He ran as an independent candidate in the 1987 general election, retaining his seat in the Centreville constituency. Three years later he returned to the fold of the Progressive Liberal Party, and was appointed Minister of Agriculture, Trade and Industry by the Prime Minister. In January, 1993 following the PLP’s defeat in the August, 1992 general election, Mr. Christie was elected Co-Deputy Leader of the PLP with responsibility for party activities outside Parliament.
Victorious in the newly created Farm Road constituency in the general election, he was appointed Leader of the Opposition by the Governor-General on April 07, 1997. He had been elected leader of the PLP at a special convention on April 05. Mr. Christie thus succeeded the late Rt. Hon. Sir Lynden Pindling, M.P., who had led the PLP since 1956 as both Leader of the Opposition and leader of the party.
He was sworn in as the third Prime Minister of an independent Bahamas on May 03, 2002, following his Progressive Liberal Party’s triumph over the Free National Movement in that year’s general elections.
Prime Minister Christie attended the Eastern Senior School in New Providence, the University Tutorial College, London, Inner Temple and Birmingham University, from which he graduated with honours in 1969.