SCARBOROUGH, Tobago, The leader of the ruling Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), Watson Duke, Monday said he is ‘demanding fresh elections” for the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) after all but one member of the party announced that they had left the party and were not independent legislators.
Duke said that the elections should be held “no later than 2023,” adding that the people of Tobago need to elect an Executive with a clear mandate and not be governed by an executive that steals power with no mandate.”
Earlier, THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine issued a statement in which he said he wanted to “assure the people of Tobago that we remain completely focussed on the business of the (THA) and serving the people of Tobago.
“I also wish to state that this transition will be seamless and swift, and I will address this matter further in due course,” Augustine said in a statement that was signed by all the other PDP members, who now claim they are independents. The resignations took effect from December 1.
The members pledged their support for Augustine, and the resignation is the latest development within the PDP that had been formed by Duke, a former trade unionist who, on September 15, had submitted his letter of resignation to Augustine.
The PDP had, on December 1 last year, ended 20 years of THA dominance by the People’s National Movement (PNM), winning 14 of the 15 seats that political observers said would have implications for the future relationship between Trinidad and Tobago.
But the two fell out after Duke made statements on his Facebook page in August that the Augustine-led THA abandoned 27 members of the Roxborough Folk Performing group in New York.
In his statement on Monday, Duke said he wanted to thank “Farley and friends for doing the honorable thing by resigning from the PDP and giving all of Tobago a fresh chance to vote for change in the upcoming 2023 THA elections.
“This cowardly act of abandoning the PDP mandate and Tobagonians are 30 pieces of silver must be treated with scorn and contempt by us, the right-thinking people of Tobago”.
Duke said that Tobago has been “ambushed” by Augustine and the other former PDP members but acknowledged that “it was clear to all and sundry that after being elected on a PDP slate, my only and constant request was that they implement the mandate that got us elected.”
In a Facebook message, THA Minority Leader Ancil Dennis wrote, “for the first time in our history, our island is managed by a team of defectors with no fixed abode. This is unprecedented, undemocratic, and perhaps unconstitutional.
“This is certainly not what Tobagonians had in mind; more challenging times ahead,” he added.
One political analyst said he does not believe that Duke could force the THA to hold elections constitutionally due in two years’ time.
According to the analyst, the various independent candidates can still function in their respective roles as some form of a coalition. “
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