Yvonne Ba­boolal

There are six women con­test­ing the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) elec­tion on Jan­u­ary 21, the largest num­ber ever, and it is hoped there will be a greater fe­male pres­ence in the THA in the com­ing years.The ex­pec­ta­tion is com­ing from Hazel Brown, head of the Net­work of NGOs of T&T for the Ad­vance­ment of Women.

Brown made the com­ment at Kari­wak Vil­lage Ho­tel in To­ba­go on Thurs­day as she made fi­nan­cial pre­sen­ta­tions to each of the can­di­dates."We got some fund­ing from the Unit­ed Na­tions Women or­gan­i­sa­tion in Bar­ba­dos for women in lead­er­ship," she said.Brown said along with the fi­nan­cial con­tri­bu­tions, which are to as­sist the women in their cam­paigns, the Net­work of NGOs has al­so been train­ing women in To­ba­go for lead­er­ship since De­cem­ber last year.

"We have been do­ing this in all elec­tions since 1996, help­ing women to en­ter pol­i­tics and prepar­ing them for win­ning."We have had good suc­cess with the pro­gramme."More women are run­ning for po­si­tions and more are win­ning," Brown ob­served."There are two women in the THA right now and we are ex­pect­ing this to in­crease."This is the largest num­ber that is con­test­ing the elec­tions."

Brown fur­ther not­ed there are two women from each of the three main po­lit­i­cal par­ties."None of them are run­ning against each oth­er, a sit­u­a­tion we had to deal with in the past," she said.Among the can­di­dates are the TOP's Cer­ti­ca Williams-Orr, a moth­er of one, who is go­ing up against the PFT's heavy roller, Ho­choy Charles, in the Ply­mouth/Gold­en Lane dis­trict.

Williams-Orr dis­missed a To­ba­go Chan­nel 5 poll which showed Lon­don lead­ing in pop­u­lar­i­ty in last Thurs­day night's de­bate.She felt it was rigged.She was not afraid of Charles ei­ther, she said."I am not afraid of him. He has no re­al track record."Williams-Orr said Ply­mouth and Gold­en Lane was suf­fer­ing from ne­glect.

Ply­mouth, a vi­brant fish­ing vil­lage, still has no prop­er fish­ing fa­cil­i­ties, she said.The oth­er TOP can­di­date is Sher­ry Ann Rol­locks-Hack­ett, prin­ci­pal of Spey­side High School.She said un­der the THA, To­ba­go's ed­u­ca­tion­al sys­tem has suf­fered from a lack of ad­min­is­tra­tive and struc­tur­al per­son­nel and this im­pact­ed neg­a­tive­ly on ed­u­ca­tion in the is­land.

She said of the eight ed­u­ca­tion­al dis­tricts in T&T, To­ba­go was sec­ond to last in per­for­mance.Run­ning for a sec­ond term in the THA is Clau­dia Groome-Duke, head of the Di­vi­sion of Health.Ques­tioned about the kitchen at the new Scar­bor­ough Hos­pi­tal, which is still not in op­er­a­tion, she said they were await­ing food dis­tri­b­u­tion equip­ment.She said the THA had or­dered the re­or­gan­i­sa­tion of the kitchen and the equip­ment.

Steel ta­bles, brought from abroad, were al­ready in Trinidad and they were now wait­ing on the carts, Groome-Duke said.In the mean­time, the kitchen was be­ing used as a point to dis­trib­ute food to the hos­pi­tal. The food is be­ing cooked at the old Scar­bor­ough hos­pi­tal and trans­port­ed to the venue.Groome-Duke said ear­li­er re­ports that the THA spends $15,000 a day to trans­port the food was in­ac­cu­rate.

She said the food was trans­port­ed in a THA truck and cooked by ex­ist­ing hos­pi­tal staff.She said the main cost comes from hav­ing to pay for food con­tain­ers.Asked the re­al cost, she said that was still be­ing worked out.

Women can­di­dates con­test­ing the THA elec­tions

PNM

Tra­cy David­son-Ce­les­tine-Par­latu­vi­er/L'Anse Four­mi/Spey­side

Clau­dia Groome-Duke-Black Rock/WHIM/Spring Gar­den

PFT

Ju­liana Hen­ry-King�Ba­co­let/Mt St George

Pet­ri­na Shanghie-Belle Gar­dens/Good­wood West

TOP

Sher­ry Ann Rol­locks-Hack­ett � Bethel/Mt Irvine

Cer­ti­ca Williams-Orr � Ply­mouth/Gold­en Lane