"The peo­ple have spo­ken," said Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar fol­low­ing pro­vi­sion­al re­sults last night of the THA elec­tion. All in­di­ca­tions are that the in­cum­bent PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion, led by Chief Sec­re­tary Orville Lon­don, was head­ed for a land­slide vic­to­ry in the 12 seats con­test­ed.

"This has been a tough po­lit­i­cal bat­tle and the choice for To­ba­go be­tween change and a per­pet­u­a­tion of an ad­min­is­tra­tion which has been in place for 12 years. "To­bag­o­ni­ans, in an over­whelm­ing ma­jor­i­ty, chose to stay with the Orville Lon­don-led THA. And as I have al­ways said, the voice of the peo­ple is the voice of God," the state­ment from the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter said.

It added: "I wish to ex­tend con­grat­u­la­tions to Mr Lon­don and the PNM for the re­sound­ing vic­to­ry se­cured at the THA polls. "I as­sure Mr Lon­don and To­bag­o­ni­ans that the cen­tral gov­ern­ment will work with the THA in the in­ter­est of de­vel­op­ing To­ba­go for the ben­e­fit of all.

"To our own sup­port­ers I say do not de­spair. In the words of po­et Maya An­ge­lo, 'while one may en­counter many de­feats, one must not be de­feat­ed.' "There is much to be learnt from this and from which strong char­ac­ter can emerge. It is a time for in­tro­spec­tion and re­solve. A time to gath­er valu­able in­sights that will serve us well in the months and years ahead.

"To each of you who worked tire­less­ly, I ex­press my heart­felt grat­i­tude. Some­where down the road your ef­forts will bring you the re­turns and the vic­to­ry will be sweet­er. "But for now let us be mind­ful that the elec­tion is over. Let us put aside our po­lit­i­cal dif­fer­ences and em­brace each oth­er. "All that mat­ters now is the de­vel­op­ment of To­ba­go which we will work to­geth­er to de­vel­op. May God bless our na­tion and may God bless you all. "