PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands —Voting is proceeding well in today’s crucial by-election in this British Overseas Territory.

The polls, which opened at 7:00 am and are scheduled to close at 7:00 this evening, has already seen 640 of the 982 electors on the list voting up to 2:00 pm at the two polling stations.

Electors are choosing between Amanda Missick of the ruling Progressive National Party (PNP) and Oral Selver of the Opposition People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) to fill the vacant Cheshire Hall and Richmond Hill constituency.

The election is seen as one of the most important in the TCI’s history as a loss for the PNP will see a collapse of the Dr Rufus Ewing-led Government, while a win for the Opposition will see the island getting its first woman premier, Sharlene Cartwright Robinson, leader of the PDM.

In the November 2012 general elections, the PNP took eight seats to the PDM’s seven.

The court called for a fresh vote after it emerged that the third place finisher in the Cheshire Hall and Richmond Hill constituency had dual citizenship, which he did not declare at the time of the election.

Officials from both the PNP and PDM this afternoon expressed confidence of victory.