Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les have con­grat­u­lat­ed Ja­maican Prime Min­is­ter An­drew Hol­ness on his third con­sec­u­tive term fol­low­ing his par­ty’s elec­tion vic­to­ry yes­ter­day.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­scribed the out­come as a de­ci­sive and over­whelm­ing show of con­fi­dence from the Ja­maican elec­torate, call­ing it “a true tes­ta­ment to the con­fi­dence and trust the peo­ple of Ja­maica placed in your lead­er­ship once more.”

She said Trinidad and To­ba­go val­ued its long­stand­ing bi­lat­er­al re­la­tion­ship with Ja­maica and the two coun­tries’ shared role in ad­vanc­ing re­gion­al pri­or­i­ties through Cari­com.

She added that her gov­ern­ment re­mained com­mit­ted to col­lab­o­ra­tion with Ja­maica on eco­nom­ic co­op­er­a­tion, re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty, and in­ter­na­tion­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion, re­flect­ing on her own ties to the coun­try. “

As you are aware, my hus­band and I have spent many ful­fill­ing years in Ja­maica,” she said. “Our shared ex­pe­ri­ences, both pro­fes­sion­al­ly and per­son­al­ly, have shaped our ap­pre­ci­a­tion for the con­tri­bu­tions that Ja­maica con­tin­ues to make to our re­gion, as well as in­ter­na­tion­al­ly.”

Beck­les al­so ex­tend­ed con­grat­u­la­tions on be­half of the Op­po­si­tion and the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment, say­ing Hol­ness’ re-elec­tion demon­strat­ed con­fi­dence in his lead­er­ship and com­mit­ment to na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

She not­ed his place in his­to­ry as Ja­maica’s youngest Prime Min­is­ter when first elect­ed in 2011 and cred­it­ed him for guid­ing the na­tion through “times of great chal­lenges and change.”

She com­mend­ed Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Par­ty leader Mark Gold­ing for run­ning a strong cam­paign and in­creas­ing his par­ty’s par­lia­men­tary seats, say­ing it un­der­scored the strength of Ja­maica’s democ­ra­cy and the im­por­tance of a “dy­nam­ic and ef­fec­tive Op­po­si­tion.”

“The peo­ple of Ja­maica have once again demon­strat­ed their un­wa­ver­ing faith in the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic process,” Beck­les said, reaf­firm­ing her par­ty’s com­mit­ment to re­gion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty and clos­er Cari­com ties.

Both lead­ers wished Hol­ness and his gov­ern­ment con­tin­ued suc­cess as he be­gins a his­toric third term in of­fice.