With just over two weeks to go be­fore the Jan­u­ary 25 To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly elec­tions, the Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots(PDP) is ad­vis­ing To­bag­o­ni­ans if they do not break the To­ba­go Coun­cil of the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment's (PNM) 20-year reign, the is­land will be in a worse po­si­tion.

Speak­er af­ter speak­er at the open­ing of the PDP's Bethel of­fice on Jan­u­ary 9, said To­bag­o­ni­ans can reg­is­ter their dis­plea­sure at the polls by vot­ing for change.

One of the PDP's deputy po­lit­i­cal lead­ers and can­di­date for Spey­side/L'Anse Four­mi/ Par­latu­vi­er Far­ley Au­gus­tine, who spoke at the meet­ing, told sup­port­ers the PNM is tak­ing To­bag­o­ni­ans for grant­ed.

" Twen­ty years they tell we about bus ter­mi­nus. Twen­ty now they telling us about pub­lic trans­porta­tion...they telling us about build­ing homes for the poor. Twen­ty years now, they telling us about mak­ing lands avail­able to our young peo­ple for farm­ing...af­ter twen­ty years, they com­ing and pre­sent­ing that in the man­i­festo. If they ent fix it in 20 years, they nah go fix it in the next four years," Far­ley said.

The Is­land Coun­cil launched its man­i­festo on Jan­u­ary 7. It cov­ered the pe­ri­od 2021-2025.

Say­ing Bethel is an ex­am­ple of the "PNM's ne­glect for the past 20 years," Au­gus­tine said many per­sons have been com­plain­ing about a lack of rep­re­sen­ta­tion by their coun­cil­man. The PNM's in­cum­bent rep­re­sen­ta­tive and can­di­date for the area is Shomari Hec­tor.

" I am hear­ing about com­plaints from peo­ple in the streets about the lack of rep­re­sen­ta­tion...Good rep­re­sen­ta­tives don't just knock on doors at elec­tion time...Good rep­re­sen­ta­tives does tell you when they can or can't help you. They don't tell you they can and then ig­nore your calls for four years...PDP is good with rep­re­sen­ta­tion. Dr Faith (B. Yis­rael ) rep­re­sent­ed as though she is the area rep­re­sen­ta­tive," he said.

Yis­rael lost the Good­wood/Belle Gar­den West seat to the PNM, by 5 votes, in the THA's 2017 elec­tions.

This time around Ter­ance Baynes- leader of the To­ba­go For­wards(TF), is the PDP's can­di­date for the elec­toral dis­trict.