Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has been elect­ed Pres­i­dent of the Women Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans of Trinidad and To­ba­go (WPTT).

She takes up the post fol­low­ing a Spe­cial Gen­er­al Meet­ing held on Sat­ur­day, where mem­bers se­lect­ed her to fill the va­can­cy in ac­cor­dance with the group’s Char­ter, which re­serves the pres­i­den­cy for a cur­rent Par­lia­men­tar­i­an.

In a Face­book post, Beck­les de­scribed her­self as “ho­n­oured and hum­bled” to as­sume the role. She thanked her pre­de­ces­sor, for­mer Speak­er Bridgid An­nisette-George, for her “steady, in­spir­ing and fo­cused lead­er­ship” and for lay­ing a sol­id foun­da­tion dur­ing her tenure.

Beck­les said the meet­ing fea­tured “vi­brant and mean­ing­ful dis­cus­sions” on is­sues in­clud­ing gen­der bud­get­ing, main­stream­ing, and the need for greater fe­male rep­re­sen­ta­tion. She de­scribed the group’s mis­sion as dis­man­tling bar­ri­ers to women in lead­er­ship and fos­ter­ing sol­i­dar­i­ty across gen­er­a­tions of par­lia­men­tar­i­ans.