The
President of Trinidad and Tobago is the
head of stateA head of state is the individual that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state. His or her role generally includes legitimizing the state and exercising the political powers, functions, and duties granted to the head of...
of
Trinidad and TobagoTrinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
, and the commander in chief of its armed forces. The office was established when the country became a
republicA republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
in 1976, before which the head of state was
Queen Elizabeth IIElizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
. The last
Governor-GeneralA Governor-General, is a vice-regal person of a monarch in an independent realm or a major colonial circonscription. Depending on the political arrangement of the territory, a Governor General can be a governor of high rank, or a principal governor ranking above "ordinary" governors.- Current uses...
,
Sir Ellis ClarkeSir Ellis Emmanuel Innocent Clarke, TC, GCMG was the second and last Governor-General of Trinidad and Tobago and the first President of Trinidad and Tobago. Clarke was one of the main architects of Trinidad and Tobago's 1962 Independence constitution.Clarke attended Saint Mary's College, winning...
, was sworn in as the first President on August 1 of that year, under a transitional arrangement. He was formally chosen as President by an
electoral collegeAn electoral college is a set of electors who are selected to elect a candidate to a particular office. Often these represent different organizations or entities, with each organization or entity represented by a particular number of electors or with votes weighted in a particular way...
consisting of members of both houses of
ParliamentThe Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago is the legislative branch of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago. The Parliament is bicameral. It consists of the elected House of Representatives, which has 43 members elected for a five year term in single-seat constituencies, and the Senate which has 31...
on September 24, 1976, which is now celebrated as Republic Day.
Under the 1976
ConstitutionA constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...
, the President is the nominal source of
executive powerExecutive Power is Vince Flynn's fifth novel, and the fourth to feature Mitch Rapp, an American agent that works for the CIA as an operative for a covert counter terrorism unit called the "Orion Team."-Plot summary:...
. Like the British Sovereign (and heads of state in other
Westminster SystemThe Westminster system is a democratic parliamentary system of government modelled after the politics of the United Kingdom. This term comes from the Palace of Westminster, the seat of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
s), he or she "reigns but does not rule". In practice, executive authority is exercised by the Prime Minister and his or her Cabinet, on behalf of the President. The President appoints as Prime Minister the leader of the largest party in the
House of RepresentativesThe House of Representatives is the elected Lower House of the bicameral Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago. The House of Representatives sits in the Red House in Port of Spain. It has 41 members, each elected to represent single-seat constituencies...
, and also appoints members of the
SenateThe Senate of Trinidad and Tobago is the appointed Upper House of the bicameral Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago. The Senate sits in the Red House in Port of Spain...
on the recommendation of the Prime Minister and the
Leader of the OppositionParliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. Note that this article uses the term government as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning the administration or the cabinet rather than the state...
. The President must be at least 35 years old (although no President has been younger than 59), a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, and at the time of nomination must have been resident in the country for an unbroken period of ten years.
The current President of Trinidad and Tobago is Professor Emeritus
George Maxwell RichardsGeorge Maxwell Richards, TC, CM is the fourth President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. A chemical engineer by training, Richards was Principal of the St. Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies in Trinidad in 1996. He previously worked for Shell Trinidad Ltd. before...
. The
official residenceAn official residence is the residence at which heads of state, heads of government, gubernatorial or other senior figures officially reside...
of the President is
President's HousePresident's House is the official residence of the President of Trinidad and Tobago. The house is located next to the Botanical Gardens in Port of Spain, Trinidad....
, previously used by the Governors-General of the islands.
See also