appointed by the Governor as Deputy Premier; and the Deputy Governor and the Attorney General. No direct elections are held for the executive; the governor is officially appointed by the British monarch. Legally, the premier is appointed to office by the governor - although under ordinary circumstances the premier will be (as are most parliamentary prime ministers) the head of the largest party in the House of Assembly. |King |Charles III | |8 September 2022 |- |Governor |Nigel Dakin | |July 2019 |- |Premier |Washington Misick |Progressive National Party |20 February 2021 |} Legislative branch The House of Assembly has 19 members, 13 members elected for a four-year term in single-seat constituencies, 3 members ex officio, 3 appointed members and a Speaker chosen from outside the council. The Progressive National Party is the leading party in the legislature with People's Democratic Movement forming the official opposition. Suspension of self-government, 2009 In compliance with the Order in Council issued by Queen Elizabeth II, on March 16, 2009 the Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands, Gordon Wetherell, in a broadcast to the British territory, announced that the constitution would be partially suspended for two years following receipt of the final Commission of Inquiry report into government corruption. On March 24, 2009, Premier Michael Misick resigned as Britain prepared to take direct administrative control of the territory. Misick, who had been at the centre of the corruption probe into the ruling elite, said in a statement he was resigning to give way to a unified government. In August 2009, the United Kingdom suspended the Turks and Caicos' self-government after allegations of ministerial corruption. The prerogative of the ministerial government and the House of Assembly were vested in the islands' incumbent governor, Gordon Wetherell, for a period of up to two years, which could be shortened or extended as necessary. On 31 May 2009, the Commission of Inquiry, led by Sir Robin Auld, a former Lord Justice of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales reported to the Governor that it had found "a high probability of systemic corruption in government and the legislature and among public officers in the Turks & Caicos Islands in recent years. It appears, in the main, to have consisted of bribery by overseas developers and other investors of Ministers and/or public officers, so as to secure Crown Land on favourable terms, coupled with government approval for