Attorney Tillman Thomas has been elected Grenada's new Prime Minister. His National Democratic Congress (NDC) scored a resounding victory over incumbent Dr Keith Mitchell's New National Party (NNP) in Tuesday's general election. Preliminary election results show Thomas's NDC winning 11 of the 15 seats in the Grenada parliament. Thomas is a veteran legislator and former political detainee. He was born on June 13, 1945 in Hermitage, St. Patrick and is the proud Parliamentary Representative for this constituency According to the NDC Website, despite the fact that he had no Secondary education, he did courses to access tertiary education at Fordham University in New York, earning a Bachelor’s degree in economics, and the University of the West Indies, where he qualified as an Attorney-at-Law graduating from the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad. Soon after the Eric Gairy government was overthrown in a coup, Thomas was thrown into jail for two years. "During the 1980s I stood up for free speech and was imprisoned for it. I have subsequently learnt to resist authoritarian rule through established institutions, such as the legislature, the judiciary and an enlightened political party," said Thomas in a published report. The new prime minister first contested general elections in Grenada in 1984 as a candidate of the National Party headed by the late Prime Minister Herbert Blaize. For six years, he served as junior minister in the Ministry of Legal Affairs, and was a founding member of the NDC in 1987, serving also as its assistant general secretary between 1987 and 1990. Thomas lost his St. Patrick East seat in the 1990 general election but was still appointed a junior minister in the Ministry of Labour before becoming a full-fledged minister in the ministries of Works and Tourism. In 2000 he became NDC leader after the party failed to win a single seat in the 15-seat parliament. Mr Thomas described the result in yesterday's poll as "a great achievement" for his party. In the previous election in 2003 the NDC lost by one seat, winning seven seats to the NNP's eight. Thomas says he has his own vision for Grenada, one that is "free, a land of equal opportunity, a land of tolerance, fair play and prosperity. "This is our country and we want to make it a place where we can live, work, bring up our children and enjoy the fruits of our labour in peace and harmony," he added. Reports are that the new prime minister will be sworn in by Governor General Sir Daniel Williams as early as this afternoon.