The People’s National Movement (PNM) Tobago Council and the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) are in election mode after the laying of the Elections and Boundaries Commission (Local Government and Tobago House of Assembly) (Tobago) Order 2021 in the House of Representatives on Friday.
The Prime Minister laid the order, which clears the path for the staging of a fresh THA election to break the six-six deadlock between both parties in the assembly, after the January 25 poll. It was the first time in the THA’s 40-year history that the result of an election ended in a tie.
The order, which will be debated in the Parliament on Wednesday, proposes 15 electoral districts to reduce the likelihood of a tie in future THA elections. At present, 12 electoral districts are represented in the THA.
But the electoral districts being proposed are largely reconfigurations of existing seats with a few exceptions. For example, Darrel Spring, a small village near the capital, Scarborough, has now been linked to Whim while Lowlands has been joined to Lambeau. The proposed Mt St George/Goodwood replaces the Bacolet/Mt St George electoral district.
PDP political leader Watson Duke, who said he read the report, questioned the EBC’s rationale in arriving at the three additional reconfigured districts.
“We are not surprised by the underhand tactics of the EBC in coming up with the three additional seats,” he told Sunday Newsday.
But he said the party is not discouraged but poised to win all 15 electoral districts whenever the date of the THA election is announced.
“We have done the mathematics. We have spoke to our candidates and prospective candidates and our membership and based on our polling throughout Tobago we are quite satisfied that we are well-poised to win this election 15-nil. And so we welcome the fight.”
Duke said the party will comment further on the issue after the debate on the order.
“But, for now, we are not happy but we are accepting what is placed there and we are willing to deal with it.”
PNM Tobago Council political leader Tracy Davidson-Celestine, who has said repeatedly that a return to the polls is the best solution to resolve the impasse in the assembly, also said the party is ready for the election.
She regarded the laying of the order in the Parliament as a step in the right direction.
[caption id="attachment_912499" align="alignnone" width="1024"] All is quiet in Darrel Spring, a small village in Scarborough, that has been linked to Whim in the EBC Order of 15 electoral districts proposed for the THA election. - PHOTO BY DAVID REID[/caption]
“This move to finally have Tobagonians decide the island’s future is a giant step in the right direction,” Davidson-Celestine said on Saturday in a statement from the Tobago Council.
“From day one, this party advocated letting the voters decide with a return to the polls. It has been the only clear solution to the deadlock.”
She accused the PDP of wanting to “gamble Tobago’s fate by tossing a coin and threatening legal action,” to break the
