Richard Lord

To­bag­o­ni­ans yes­ter­day gave Orville Lon­don and the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) a fresh man­date to take the is­land for­ward for the next four years. And they did so by giv­ing the PNM an his­toric land­slide 12-0 vic­to­ry over Ash­worth Jack's To­ba­go Or­gan­i­sa­tion of the Peo­ple (TOP) in the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) polls.

Speak­ing to sup­port­ers last night, PNM's Orville Lon­don, who se­cured a fourth con­sec­u­tive term in of­fice, said he was hum­bled by the trust the peo­ple had put in his par­ty to lead them once again. "This is not an Orville Lon­don vic­to­ry. This is not a PNM vic­to­ry. This is in fact a vic­to­ry for the peo­ple of To­ba­go," Lon­don told a huge gath­er­ing of sup­port­ers at the par­ty's head­quar­ters in Scar­bor­ough last night.

Cit­ing the bit­ter­ness of the cam­paign, he said it was now time for the sup­port­ers of both par­ties to cast aside their dif­fer­ences and work to en­sure the self gov­er­nance promised for the is­land was de­liv­ered. He al­so called on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to sit down with him, af­ter he is re­in­stalled as Chief Sec­re­tary on Thurs­day, to dis­cuss the re­la­tion­ship be­tween the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment and the THA.

Lon­don said one of the mat­ters that should be ad­dressed al­most im­me­di­ate­ly by the Prime Min­is­ter and Min­is­ter of Fi­nance Lar­ry Howai was the dis­burse­ment of the $625 mil­lion owed the THA. "The best in­au­gu­ra­tion gift we can get would be a cheque from the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance say­ing that what is due to To­ba­go, To­ba­go must get," Lon­don said.

He said he was hap­py the win­ning PNM team had mem­bers with youth and ex­pe­ri­ence. He said his team "will pro­vide the kind of pelau that To­ba­go will en­joy." The new PNM team, in its next term of of­fice, was "ser­vice ori­ent­ed and ready." Lon­don said over the next four years the peo­ple of To­ba­go will be called up­on to play a more crit­i­cal role in the is­land's de­vel­op­ment.

Leader of the vic­to­ri­ous PNM, Dr Kei­th Row­ley, said the vic­to­ry was "not just a To­ba­go PNM vic­to­ry but a To­ba­go peo­ple's vic­to­ry." "It rep­re­sents a turn­ing point in this coun­try and in this par­ty," Row­ley said, adding there was ju­bi­la­tion in Trinidad and mer­ri­ment in To­ba­go. Row­ley list­ed the ma­jor PNM cam­paign is­sues:

�2 the need for good gov­er­nance in T&T

�2 Gov­ern­ment must speak the truth and re­spect the peo­ple

Row­ley said the TOP de­feat was a con­fir­ma­tion that the Gov­ern­ment in T&T was bad. He told the cheer­ing PNM au­di­ence that the road ahead would not be smooth, since there would be many chal­lenges and ob­sta­cles. He stressed: "Once again To­ba­go has lit the can­dle to show T&T the way."

PNM's THA win­ners

�2 Orville Lon­don - Scar­bor­ough/Calder Hall

�2 Hilton Sandy - Rox­bor­ough/De­laford

�2 Clau­dia Groome-Duke - Black Rock/Whim/Spring Gar­den

�2 God­win Adams - Ply­mouth/Gold­en Lane

�2 Tracey David­son-Ce­les­tine - Par­latu­vi­er/L'Anse Four­mi/Spey­side

�2 Hay­den Spencer - Belle Gar­den/Good­wood

�2 Joel Jack - Ba­co­let/Mt St George

�2 Jo­mo Pitt - Lam­beau/Sig­nal Hill

�2 Han­del Beck­les - Bethel/Mt Irvine

�2 An­cil Den­nis - Buc­coo/Mt Pleas­ant

�2 Huey Cadette - Canaan/Bon Ac­cord)

�2 Shel­don Cun­ning­ham - Prov­i­dence/Ma­son Hall/Mo­ri­ah