Nikoli Edwards

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Nikoli Edwards (born 16 October 1991) is a businessman and political activist from San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago. He served as a temporary independent senator from January 2017 to 2018, appointed by President Anthony Carmona. In 2019 he launched the Progressive Party and became its interim leader.

In the August 2020 general elections, he ran for the San Fernando West seat but lost to Faris Al-Rawi of the PNM. Edwards received 211 votes for the Progressive Party.

Edwards grew up in San Fernando, spending his early years along Independence Avenue before moving to Diamond Village. He is the eldest child of Tamara Edwards and Hassan Atwell. He attended San Fernando Boys' R.C. School (1995–2003) and San Fernando Secondary Comprehensive (until 2008). He earned a Certificate in Communication Studies from the University of the West Indies Open Campus (2009–2012) and a BA in Communication Studies with a Theatre Arts minor from UWI St. Augustine (2015). He later pursued postgraduate studies in Mediation at UWI St. Augustine.

He has been active in youth leadership, including being elected to the Commonwealth Youth Council in 2015 as Vice Chair for Policy, Advocacy and Projects, and founding the Trinidad and Tobago Youth Convention. He served as a representative in the UWI Guild of Students (2014/15 as Humanities and Education representative, 2015/16 as Secretary). He was awarded the 2018 National Youth Award for Youth Activism.