KINGSTON, Jamaica — Parliament will bid goodbye to the country’s first female prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller, by paying tribute to her this afternoon on the eve of her departure. The joint sitting of Parliament — involving both the House and the Senate- commences at 2:00 pm at Gordon House, Duke Street in Kingston.

Born Portia Lucretia Simpson in Woodhall, St Catherine, on December 12, 1945, the 72-year-old politician served as Prime Minister from March 2006 to September 2007, and again from 2012 to 2016.

She was named prime minister after PJ Patterson retired and she won a decisive victory as president of the then ruling People’s National Party (PNP) in 2006. She failed in her first test as party leader when she lost to the Bruce Golding-led Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in September 2007.

However, four years later she turned the tables on Golding’s successor Andrew Holness in December 2011. But Holness returned to defeat the PNP with a one-seat majority in the House of Representatives on February 25, 2016, and has been prime minister since then.

While serving as prime minister, Simpson-Miller retained the positions of minister of defence, development, information and sports. She also served as minister of labour, social security and sport, minister of tourism and sports and minister of local government, earlier in her political career.

She was first elected to office as a councillor in the then Kingston and St Andrew Corporation in 1974, representing Trench Town West, the first time the PNP won that seat.

She was first elected to Parliament in 1976 following a violent political battle, which included the detention of JLP candidate Pearnel Charles.

Charles, the current Speaker of the House, had to be replaced as candidate after being detained during the state of emergency called by Prime Minister Michael Manley. Thousands of residents of South West St Andrew were also displaced during the campaign.

The seat, eventually, became the strongest for the PNP in the Corporate Area, with Simpson Miller winning holding it between 1976 and 1983, when the PNP boycotted the general election that year. She returned to Parliament in 1989 and has held it since.

In her final budget speech as leader of the Opposition in March, the former prime minister, told her colleagues in Gordon House, including Charles:

“Mr Speaker, above all even through the tears and regrets, I have seen nothing but good in the people of Jamaica. They are resilient and strong. For me it has been a lifelong love affair. We have had our ups and downs, but our love is strong, and endures forever.

“Jamaica and our people have a special place in the deep recesses of my heart and it is my dream that I will be around to see that day, when our people have full economic and social independence. May God bless you, and may God bless Jamaica, land we love.”

Simpson Miller and her former finance minister, Dr Omar Davies, are scheduled to hand in their resignations to Speaker Charles, this Thursday.