Yes­ter­day’s mood in the Par­lia­ment was ob­vi­ous­ly high for the Gov­ern­ment, es­pe­cial­ly where the three bills un­der de­bate were con­cerned.

Fore­most, a bill to in­crease To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) sec­re­taries fol­low­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty part­ner’s 15-0 “Blue Wash” of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment out of the THA in Mon­day’s elec­tion.

Speedy bill in­tro­duc­tion con­firmed Gov­ern­ment’s cel­e­bra­tion of the TPP’s vic­to­ry, the start of moves to­wards TPP-re­quest­ed au­ton­o­my, recog­ni­tion of the TPP as a par­ty of equal foot­ing ful­ly con­trol­ling the THA - ac­knowl­edg­ing how pow­er­ful it is in To­ba­go and its stand­ing along­side a coali­tion part­ners’ ad­min­is­tra­tion.

Sec­ond­ly, the Mo­tor Ve­hi­cles Amend­ment Bill in­sti­tut­ing con­di­tions eas­ing the in­tro­duc­tion of steep traf­fic vi­o­la­tion fines af­ter pub­lic out­cry on the rocky start. Dam­age con­trol sought to save Gov­ern­ment’s stocks with the pub­lic, now open to dis­gruntle­ment with mea­sures neg­a­tive­ly im­pact­ing liveli­hoods. Es­pe­cial­ly with drop­ping in­fla­tion con­firm­ing a neg­a­tive eco­nom­ic con­trac­tion. Need for ad­just­ment to the law con­firmed that Gov­ern­ment mis­read the “ground.” And its pop­u­lar­i­ty.

Al­so, the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tion Zones bill was Gov­ern­ment’s an­swer to con­tain­ing crime and gangs’ “busi­ness re­coup” back­lash. It’s a step-down mea­sure from the State of Emer­gency, end­ing mon­thend.

Be­yond zone use in Ja­maica - which re­duced crime - how it works lo­cal­ly de­pends on T&T’s cul­ture. While ob­vi­ous “hotspots” are at fo­cus, the Prime Min­is­ter’s de­scrip­tion of T&T as a “law­less dump” might re­quire zones to in­volve more than the “usu­al sus­pects.” Es­pe­cial­ly with north-to-south rob­bery ram­pant, from beyra-wear­ers to busi­ness­peo­ple.

Gov­ern­ment will hope the To­ba­go PNM’s de­feat will be trans­lat­ed to the na­tion­al PNM. But af­ter mak­ing the PNM “blue,” the TPP’s chal­lenges are as big as its vic­to­ry: no op­po­si­tion to main­tain ac­count­abil­i­ty. This is dan­ger­ous for To­ba­go go­ing full speed seek­ing au­ton­o­my. Civ­il so­ci­ety, busi­ness and oth­er groups must now do due dili­gence.

The TPP’s sweep al­so places it in the un­en­vi­able po­si­tion of be­ing on top where is­sues can send one down­ward; there’s no one to blame and “own goals” could flour­ish. Pres­sure will be high to stay atop and live up to in­creased pub­lic ex­pec­ta­tions with the TPP’s full con­trol.

“Blue Wash” al­so rep­re­sent­ed on­ly half of To­ba­go’s elec­torate, ac­cord­ing to pre­lim­i­nary re­sults. This was a low­er turnout than 2021. TPP’s 16,240, less than the Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots’ 2021 win of 16,932. PNM got over 1,000 votes less than in 2021.

Sup­port re­mained with TPP leader Far­ley Au­gus­tine de­spite To­ba­go’s is­sues, stag­nant econ­o­my and the un­pop­u­lar­i­ty of his UNC part­ner. His re­minder to the Prime Min­is­ter - that while yel­low may be the code in Trinidad, blue is the colour in To­ba­go - telegraphed TPP’s strength since its 15-0 best­ed the UNC’s record of on­ly 26 seats in Trinidad. TPP’s po­si­tion for strength­en­ing au­ton­o­my and oth­er calls places it among groups - in­creas­ing­ly unions - al­so mak­ing de­mands on the Gov­ern­ment.

De­feat has cast the PNM all the way back to Jan­u­ary 2025, when new lead­er­ship was need­ed af­ter then-leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley an­nounced he’d step down. The PNM’s votes showed the ef­fect of ex­ter­nal fac­tors - bound­ary changes, less vot­ers and the TPP uni­fy­ing small­er par­ties.

Key in­ter­nal­ly was To­ba­go lead­er­ship, mem­bers say - dis­sat­is­fac­tion with de­feat­ed leader An­cil Den­nis since gen­er­al elec­tions and be­fore. This, par­tic­u­lar­ly in To­ba­go West, where for­mer PNM TW chair­man Keigon De­noon now holds Buc­coo/Mt Pleas­ant in that area for TPP.

Den­nis hasn’t yet re­signed, it’s con­firmed. Yes­ter­day, To­ba­go PN­Mites said To­ba­go Coun­cil ex­ec­u­tive elec­tions held every four years are due April. How­ev­er, they’ll take to next Sat­ur­day’s Gen­er­al Coun­cil, a pro­pos­al to hold the elec­tion as soon as pos­si­ble for tran­si­tion and a new leader/team may be in soon af­ter Car­ni­val lat­est.

Names heard: de­feat­ed can­di­date Kelvon Mor­ris, de­feat­ed TW MP Sham­fa Cud­joe, out­go­ing PRO Lawrence His­lop - de­feat­ed in 2021- new Sen­a­tor Melanie Roberts-Radg­man. Mem­bers, how­ev­er, are eye­ing a cer­tain politi­cian who hasn’t lost.

Some coun­cil mem­bers said PNM leader Pen­ny Beck­les wasn’t part of the elec­tion de­ci­sion-mak­ing process­es. But de­feat in this elec­tion test has af­fect­ed her lead­er­ship to the point that an MP and cer­tain mem­bers have is­sued posts call­ing for sup­port for her to be voiced.

Amid all, the po­si­tion of PDP’s Wat­son Duke- job or oth­er­wise- is ex­pect­ed to be fi­nalised over the next two weeks, sources said.