Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les 

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent 

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) To­ba­go Coun­cil has re­ceived 32 nom­i­na­tions from in­di­vid­u­als hop­ing to con­test the up­com­ing To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) elec­tion.

Po­lit­i­cal leader An­cil Den­nis said the nom­i­na­tion process of­fi­cial­ly closed last Wednes­day in all 15 elec­toral dis­tricts.

“We will put out a re­lease by this Wednes­day in­di­cat­ing the to­tal num­ber of nom­i­nees re­ceived, which is 32 across all the dis­tricts, and we’ll be an­nounc­ing a date for screen­ing for some of the elec­toral dis­tricts,” Den­nis told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day.

The par­ty had ear­li­er opened nom­i­na­tions in two phas­es—clos­ing in eight dis­tricts first and ex­tend­ing to June 12 in the re­main­ing sev­en.

Now that the nom­i­na­tion pe­ri­od has end­ed, nom­i­nees will face the in­ter­nal screen­ing process. Dis­trict par­ty groups will re­view can­di­dates be­fore ad­vanc­ing to the par­ty’s Screen­ing Com­mit­tee, which will se­lect the fi­nal slate to con­test the elec­tion.

Den­nis pre­vi­ous­ly said the PNM is look­ing for more than just can­di­dates—they want lead­ers with in­tegri­ty, vi­sion, and heart.

The PNM said it in­tends to con­test all 15 dis­tricts as part of its re­newed fo­cus on peo­ple-cen­tred lead­er­ship and ac­count­abil­i­ty.

The par­ty lost its 20-year strong­hold of the as­sem­bly af­ter its 14-1 de­feat against Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots in the De­cem­ber 6, 2021 elec­tion. 

The par­ty’s pow­er had slipped ear­li­er that year when the PDP won six of 12 seats in the first elec­tion which was held in Jan­u­ary. 

This cre­at­ed a 6-6 dead­lock be­tween both par­ties, prompt­ing Par­lia­ment to amend the con­sti­tu­tion to ex­pand the seats from 12 to 15.

The next THA elec­tion is sched­uled to be held by De­cem­ber this year.

Chief Sec­re­tary and leader of the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty, Far­ley Au­gus­tine, had al­ready in­di­cat­ed there would be no ear­ly elec­tion but had urged TPP mem­bers and sup­port­ers to pre­pare for the poll.

By law, the elec­tion can be held up to 90 days af­ter the as­sem­bly’s term ends, which means it could hap­pen as late as March 2026. But most par­ties are al­ready prepar­ing for the elec­tion to take place by the end of this year.