The House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives has unan­i­mous­ly con­firmed Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher as the coun­try's first-ever fe­male Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice.

All Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment in the House vot­ed in favour of the mo­tion to ap­point her, end­ing in a vote of 36 for, ze­ro against and ze­ro ab­sten­tions.

Hare­wood-Christo­pher, who has been act­ing in the po­si­tion, was rec­om­mend­ed by the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PSC) but the rec­om­men­da­tion still need­ed to be rat­i­fied by Par­lia­ment.

Lead­ing the mo­tion for her ap­point­ment, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley said that the PSC had nom­i­nat­ed her "as the high­est grade can­di­date".

He de­scribed her as "very well qual­i­fied through train­ing and acad­e­mia" and told the House that the Gov­ern­ment was not sur­prised that the PSC would have list­ed her as the top ap­pli­cant at this time.

Hare­wood-Christo­pher is 59 years old and by law must re­tire when she turns 60 on May 15, 2023.

How­ev­er, Dr Row­ley not­ed that the law al­lows for an ex­ten­sion of one year, and fol­low­ing a re­view, a max­i­mum fur­ther ex­ten­sion of two one-year terms.

He told the House that her im­mi­nent re­tire­ment did not dis­qual­i­fy her as a nom­i­nee.

Op­po­si­tion Oropouche East Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment Dr Roodal Mooni­lal told the House that he had no prob­lem with her qual­i­fi­ca­tions.

He said, how­ev­er, that it was re­gret­table that she did not have any his­to­ry of crime-fight­ing on the field.

"Whether that is an ad­van­tage or a dis­ad­van­tage one could nev­er tell," he said, adding that one would ex­pect that some­one com­ing in­to this po­si­tion would have some his­to­ry of crime-fight­ing to bring to bear.

He said it was un­for­tu­nate that the names of those who were list­ed by the PSC as sec­ond and third, were not made pub­lic.

He wished Hare­wood-Christo­pher "all the best in her en­deav­our" and said he want­ed to in­di­cate to her that both the coun­try and the Op­po­si­tion will be watch­ing her tenure.

He al­so told her to be tough and strong.