Po­lit­i­cal par­ties in To­ba­go all say they are ready for bat­tle af­ter the elec­tion date—April 28—was an­nounced yes­ter­day.

Nikoli Ed­wards, leader of the Pro­gres­sive Par­ty, an­nounced that he and his par­ty will not con­test the 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion, cit­ing fi­nan­cial con­straints and sys­temic chal­lenges with­in the elec­toral process.

Based on all that our sources have been telling us over the past few weeks, we were not in the least sur­prised yes­ter­day by Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young’s an­nounce­ment of an April 28 elec­tion date.

The Ch­agua­nas Cham­ber of Com­merce is call­ing on all po­lit­i­cal lead­ers to ad­dress the ur­gent eco­nom­ic and busi­ness chal­lenges fac­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go, fol­low­ing the an­nounce­ment of the gen­er­al elec­tion on April 28, 2025.

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro can­di­date Phillip Watts has called on PNM sup­port­ers to close that “red door” and en­ter the “house of yel­low.”

A deputy po­lit­i­cal leader of the Hon­esty, Op­por­tu­ni­ty, Per­for­mance and Em­pow­er­ment (HOPE) par­ty has re­signed fol­low­ing a con­tentious joint meet­ing with the Com­mu­ni­ty Ref­or­ma­tion Net­work (CRM) NGO and the Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance (NTA).

Dr Rai Rag­bir, the Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la, an­nounced his im­me­di­ate res­ig­na­tion from the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), ex­press­ing deep dis­ap­point­ment with the par­ty's cur­rent di­rec­tion. In a press re­lease, Dr. Rag­bir stat­ed that the UNC "no longer up­holds the val­ues it once rep­re­sent­ed" and has be­come in­flu­enced by in­di­vid­u­als whose con­duct he finds "deeply trou­bling."

Po­lit­i­cal Leader of the Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance (NTA), Gary Grif­fith, said his par­ty an­tic­i­pat­ed the April 28 elec­tion date and has been prepar­ing ac­cord­ing­ly.

Wat­son Duke, leader of the Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP), has con­firmed he will con­test a seat in the 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion, set­ting the stage for a fierce bat­tle in To­ba­go. The April 28 date elec­tion date was an­nounced on Tues­day and both the PDP and the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) are prepar­ing for a heat­ed con­test in To­ba­go East and To­ba­go West.

To­ba­go Cham­ber head and at­tor­ney at law, Mar­tin George says the rul­ing Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) is en­ter­ing the Gen­er­al Elec­tion from a “po­si­tion of strength and readi­ness,” while the op­po­si­tion and oth­er par­ties are still try­ing to get their hous­es in or­der.

The threat of le­gal ac­tion chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of his ap­point­ment isn’t the biggest hur­dle for Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young. His biggest task will be win­ning suf­fi­cient good­will to suc­cess­ful­ly lead his Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) in­to gen­er­al elec­tions that must be held no lat­er than No­vem­ber 28. That isn’t much time to gain the nec­es­sary po­lit­i­cal trac­tion in what is shap­ing up to be a crowd­ed elec­toral race that is like­ly to in­clude a Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC)-led coali­tion among the var­i­ous con­tenders. He will need PNM sup­port­ers to ral­ly around him and ex­pand the rul­ing par­ty’s sup­port base be­yond its tra­di­tion­al strong­holds.

The Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter has con­firmed the 2025 Elec­tion will be held on April 28. The an­nounce­ment was made via me­dia re­lease.