(Trinidad Express) The Tobago political map turned almost entirely green yesterday as the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) won upwards of 12 out of the 15 seats in the enlarged Tobago House of Assembly (THA).
Up to late last night the final count was not available but PNM Tobago political leader Tracy Davidson-Celestine was said to be fighting to hold on to her seat and Marslyn Melville Jack was leading by a mere five votes.
The Tobago PNM collapsed as many PNM strongholds in the sister isle fell to the PDP, despite the overwhelming advertisements and campaigning against PDP’s leader Watson Duke. Duke won his seat by a runaway margin of two to one; but Farley Augustine, the Chief Secretary-designate, outperformed his leader with an almost four-to-one margin of victory while Dr Faith B Yisrael, the Secretary for Health-designate, achieved a two-to-one margin of victory.
PNM frontliners — Chief Secretary Ancil Dennis and Deputy Chief Secretary Joel Jack, an Assemblyman since 2013, went down to defeat. Dennis lost by two votes which would be subject to recount.
The PNM which has been in power in Tobago for the last 20 years, was defeated by the relatively new party which was successful in getting support from all the political forces in opposition to the PNM in Tobago. As Augustine put it: “A party of just about five years old was able to do what a party older than most of us couldn’t.”
In the last January 25 election the PNM and the PDP were tied 6-6, with the PNM winning the popular vote. But in December there was a significant reversal of the PNM fortunes as the anti-incumbency mood coupled with the relative unpopularity of the PNM’s Tobago leader swept the Tobago electorate.
Blow for Rowley
The defeat is a significant blow for Tobago-born Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley whose Tobago roots failed to move the electorate in his party’s favour.
The loss of the THA has implications for national politics and for the next general election because an important part of the PNM parliamentary majority rests on the two Tobago seats.
UNC politicians were immediately buoyed.
“My cup is full and runneth over this evening. Tobagonians don’t like advantage and Tracy (Davidson-Celestine) and Keith Rowley just forgot those principles. And spending all this money just turned their (Tobagonians) stomach,” UNC Senator Jearlean John said last night as she commented on the PDP victory.
Augustine thanked Duke, noting that he pushed him (Augustine) into the line of fire and asked him to lead. “We must give all respect, love and gratitude to our political leader,” he said. Yisrael said: “People had 21 years of one kind of governance and the PDP has shown them that there is another kind of governance which involves greater transparency and participation.” She said the fact that the PNM threw everything it had at the PDP, showed that that party was aware of what was taking place.
She said priority number one of the new THA is to get the health system back up and running, since it seemed to have collapsed under Covid. Another priority would be digitisation, she said.
‘Nobody lives there’
The PNM hierarchy was slow to show up at the party’s Shaw Park campaign headquarters, provoking a meme to go viral with a picture of the empty chairs at Shaw Park, the caption “Nobody lives there”.
Davidson-Celestine and the PNM Tobago team eventually appeared. In her concession speech, Davidson-Celestine said the PNM was trying to do in Tobago what many democratic governments could not achieve, which was to retain power for consecutive terms in office. “We did not make it. The people decided they wanted change,” she said. She congratulated the PDP and its leadership for winning the election and wished them the best in the upcoming term of office in the THA.
“Of course we are saddened by the loss but it is an opportunity for us to regroup and do our introspection and look at for new ways in which we can appeal to and appease the members of the public. We want to say that the PNM is still strong and alive, our candidates will continue to work on behalf of the PNM. And we will not stop until we are able to take control of the THA once again,” she said, adding that the Tobago Council of the PNM will continue to represent the people of Tobago.
Davidson-Celestine said the PNM’s campaign was a well executed one. It offered the people of Tobago exciting new plans as the party was intent on revolutionising Tobago and the THA. She said while the people voted for other options, the PNM was still here. “We are still very concerned and would like to see Tobago develop in a particular way and we will play our part to ensure that Tobago is governed in the right way,” she said. “We are still here and we will provide you with whatever representation that you would need,” she added. The erstwhile Health Secretary concluded her speech by saying that although she is no longer Health Secretary she wanted to urge Tobagonians to be safe and to get vaccinated.
