Palmavon Webster is an Anguillian lawyer and politician. She is a former member of the House of Assembly of Anguilla and leader of the opposition.
Palmavon Webster | |
|---|---|
| Member of the House of Assembly of Anguilla | |
| In office 23 April 2015 – 30 June 2020 | |
| Constituency | Island Harbour |
Webster was born in Island Harbour, Anguilla. She went to the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill in Barbados, graduating with a bachelor's in law in 1984. She obtained a legal education certificate from the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica in 1986.[1]
From 1986 to 1987, she worked as crown counsel to the attorney general of Anguilla.[2] Since then, she has worked as a lawyer focused on corporate and real estate law at her Webster Law Firm. She was also a long-serving president of the Anguilla Financial Services Association beginning in 2001.[1]
Webster first entered politics in 2010, running for the Island Harbour seat in the House of Assembly as a member of the Anguilla Progressive Party. She lost to Othlyn Vanterpool of the Anguilla United Front.[1]
Five years later, after distancing herself from the APP—saying that "our values have separated"—she ran as an independent.[3] She took the seat in the 2015 Anguillian general election, unseating the incumbent with 35% of the vote to his 33%.[1][4] The only member elected who was not in the AUF, she subsequently became leader of the opposition.[5][6]
Alongside Cora Richardson-Hodge and Evalie Bradley, she was part of a wave of female candidates who took office in the House of Assembly that year, the first women to do so in over three decades.[7] Webster herself was the first female representative of her district and the country's first female leader of the opposition.[8]
In 2018, she was elected to the board of the Caribbean Democrat Union, a center-right political union.[9]
She ran for re-election to the House of Assembly in 2020 but lost to the leader of the Anguilla Progressive Movement, Ellis Webster, who became prime minister.[10]
References
edit- ^ a b c d "Palmavon J. Webser". Caribbean Elections. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
- ^ "The Honourable Pam Webster, Managing Partner, Leader of the Opposition in the Anguilla house of Assembly". Webster.
- ^ Hodge, Tyrone (4 October 2013). "PALMAVON WEBSTER: ANGUILLA'S NEXT C.M." The Anguillian Newspaper - The Weekly Independent Paper of Anguilla. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
- ^ "Anguilla Election 2015 | District 1 Island Harbour". Caribbean Elections. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
- ^ "Premier to seek Order in Council to postpone elections in Anguilla". The Daily Herald. 3 April 2020. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
- ^ "Hon. Palmavon Webster House of Assembly Statement". The Anguillian Newspaper - The Weekly Independent Paper of Anguilla. 18 May 2020. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
- ^ "Women in Politics in Anguilla". Caribbean Elections. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
- ^ "PALMAVON WEBSTER – DISTRICT ONE – VOTE FOR THE FISH Pam's Update – 21st February 2020". The Anguillian Newspaper - The Weekly Independent Paper of Anguilla. 25 February 2020. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
- ^ "Meet the new Caribbean Democratic Union Board". International Democrat Union. 21 January 2018. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
- ^ "2020 General Elections Results". Anguilla Elections. Retrieved 8 October 2020.