Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has ex­pressed sad­ness fol­low­ing the pass­ing of long-stand­ing Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) mem­ber Don Sylvester, de­scrib­ing him as a de­vot­ed and com­mit­ted sup­port­er of the par­ty. Sylvester died on Mon­day.

In a state­ment, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said Sylvester’s life re­flect­ed ser­vice, com­mit­ment and un­wa­ver­ing ded­i­ca­tion to the UNC.

She said dur­ing his years of pub­lic ser­vice, Sylvester served as a Tem­po­rary Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tor dur­ing the Tenth Par­lia­ment from 2012 to 2014, con­test­ed the St Ann’s East seat for the UNC in the 2015 gen­er­al elec­tions and held sev­er­al roles in lo­cal gov­ern­ment.

The Prime Min­is­ter said Sylvester con­sis­tent­ly an­swered the call to serve, ap­proach­ing every re­spon­si­bil­i­ty with pas­sion and a strong sense of du­ty.

She said she had the priv­i­lege of work­ing along­side him on the UNC’s Na­tion­al Ex­ec­u­tive for many years, de­scrib­ing him as steady, de­pend­able and deeply com­mit­ted to the par­ty.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said his be­lief in the UNC nev­er fal­tered, and his sup­port for both the par­ty and her lead­er­ship re­mained con­stant over the decades.

She said he re­mained en­gaged and res­olute dur­ing both strong and chal­leng­ing pe­ri­ods.

She de­scribed Sylvester as a grass­roots ac­tivist who main­tained close ties with par­ty mem­bers and un­der­stood the im­por­tance of that con­nec­tion.

She said he earned the re­spect and ap­pre­ci­a­tion of the rank and file through his time, en­er­gy and ad­vo­ca­cy, bring­ing warmth, pas­sion and con­vic­tion to his work.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said Sylvester’s pass­ing is a loss to the UNC and to all who worked with him, adding that his con­tri­bu­tion and loy­al­ty will not be for­got­ten.

On be­half of the Gov­ern­ment and as UNC po­lit­i­cal leader, she ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly, friends and sup­port­ers, ex­press­ing hope that they would find com­fort in his years of ser­vice.

Don Sylvester part of UNC’s back­bone- Ma­haraj

For­mer UNC Min­is­ter Dr De­vant Ma­haraj yes­ter­day paid trib­ute to for­mer tem­po­rary UNC Gov­ern­ment sen­a­tor Don Sylvester as be­ing among those in the UNC who formed the par­ty’s back­bone.

Ma­haraj said, “Hav­ing served both in Cab­i­net and with­in the UNC, I know first­hand the val­ue of in­di­vid­u­als like Don—those who may not al­ways seek the spot­light, but whose com­mit­ment, dis­ci­pline and loy­al­ty form the back­bone of our great par­ty. Don Sylvester em­bod­ied that spir­it.

“His ser­vice in the Sen­ate was marked by a qui­et re­solve and a gen­uine ded­i­ca­tion to rep­re­sent­ing the in­ter­ests of the peo­ple, and his in­volve­ment with­in the par­ty’s in­ter­nal struc­tures, in­clud­ing at the Na­tion­al Ex­ec­u­tive lev­el, re­flect­ed his deep-root­ed be­lief in the UNC and its mis­sion.”

He added, “Don was a man of hu­mil­i­ty and strength—some­one who un­der­stood that pol­i­tics, at its best, is about ser­vice, sac­ri­fice and stand­ing firm in one’s con­vic­tions. He gave him­self to the move­ment, to his col­leagues, and the coun­try, with­out fan­fare but with un­wa­ver­ing pur­pose.”

Ma­haraj said Sylvester’s pass­ing was not on­ly a loss to his fam­i­ly, but al­so to the wider UNC fam­i­ly and the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty he served with dig­ni­ty.

“In mo­ments like these, we’re re­mind­ed that the strength of any po­lit­i­cal move­ment lies not on­ly in its lead­ers, but in its faith­ful sol­diers—men like Don Sylvester, whose con­tri­bu­tions help shape its lega­cy and sus­tain its fu­ture,” he said.