Sebastian Perez

Sebastian Perez is a Santa Dominican politician who has served as the 14th Prime Minister of Santa Dominica since 6 June 2023. He is a member of the Liberal party, and has led his party since 2021 after beating Edward Hawkins in the 2021 Liberal leadership election. His ascension to leader of the Liberal party was an extreme upset, as he only became an MP in January 2021 as Mari Sato won her second mandate. Prior to his standing as an MP, he was a private businessman and his ability to secure a seat was seen as a surprise given his lack of name recognition. Edward Hawkins, as a result of his ousting Mari Sato as prime minister, became extremely unpopular with the Liberal base, and thus outsider Sebastian Perez was able to sweep to victory in the leadership contest.

After gaining seats for the Liberals in the 2022 General Election, Perez stayed on as leader and ran against Dennis Hagen in the 2023 vote. Despite coming in second place, Dennis Hagen was unable to secure enough votes to retain the confidence of the House of Commons, and thus on 6 June 2023 President of the Senate Mari Sato formally gave permission that Perez form the next government, becoming prime minister.

Prime Minister Perez is expected to have a difficult time governing such an unwieldy coalition of parties, who seem largely unified merely as a tool to kick the Tories out of power. As a result of this coalition, John Astor, the hastily-elected leader of the Labour Party selected by MPs, is Deputy Prime Minister