Persad-Bissessar, Kamla, 1952—, Trinidadian political leader. A lawyer of South Asian descent and a member of the United National Congress (UNC), she was appointed to Trinidad and Tobago's senate in 1994 and in 1995 was first elected to parliament. She subsequently served as attorney general (1995–96, 2001), legal affairs minister (1996–99, 2001), and education minister (1999–2001). Opposition leader in 2006–7, she was elected UNC party leader in 2010. In elections that year she led the UNC and the five-party People's Partnership coalition to victory, becoming Trinidad and Tobago's first woman prime minister. Her coalition lost power, however, in 2015, and lost again in 2020.
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