Gail Alexan­der

To­bag­o­ni­ans just want­ed change—it wasn’t the Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP) coali­tion, in­de­pen­dent can­di­dates or fer­ry ser­vice prob­lems which caused the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s (PNM’s) loss­es in Mon­day’s To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) elec­tion.

That’s the view of To­ba­go PNM chair­man Stan­ford Cal­len­der.

He said his­to­ry—for PNM to have the first fe­male THA Chief Sec­re­tary—has been put on hold where To­ba­go PNM leader Tra­cy David­son-Ce­les­tine’s bid is con­cerned.

Cal­len­der was among those speak­ing yes­ter­day on what was done right and wrong, caus­ing Mon­day’s elec­tion out­come.

The rul­ing PNM, which had 10 THA seats, lost four more, end­ing up in a 6-6 tie with the PDP.

Cal­len­der said, “We’ve grap­pled for years with some­thing —in­cum­ben­cy can work for or against you. In To­ba­go, for years peo­ple clam­oured for change. It hap­pened when (past leader) Orville Lon­don was there too. So we changed peo­ple with­in.”

“But PNM has been there for so long. Notwith­stand­ing that DAC spent the same length of time but peo­ple want­ed change and we knew that was al­ways go­ing to be a chal­lenge. Want­i­ng change was the bot­tom line so some fol­lowed some­thing once it wasn’t PNM.”

Cal­len­der said he told the PNM it had to can­vass in more tech­no­log­i­cal ways since tra­di­tion­al door-to-door can­vass­ing was lim­it­ed.

“We’ll have to give more se­ri­ous thought to more tech-based can­vass­ing as much in­for­ma­tion we get is mis­lead­ing. To­bag­o­ni­ans have a ten­den­cy to tell you what they think you want to hear and they don’t vote for you, they vote against some­thing.”

Cal­len­der re­called in 1984 in the on­ly elec­tion he lost, the PNM’s sur­vey had shown 90 per cent of peo­ple say­ing they’d sup­port him. He lost five to one.

He said the PNM’s le­gal lu­mi­nar­ies have to fig­ure out amid the tie, how con­trol of THA and the ap­point­ment of a Chief Sec­re­tary will be de­cid­ed since the law is silent on this.

Chairman of the PNM Tobago Council Stanford Callender.

For­mer PNM To­ba­go mem­ber and in­de­pen­dent can­di­date Denise Tsoiafatt-An­gus, who lost in Scar­bor­ough/Sig­nal Hill, said the sit­u­a­tion in To­ba­go changes every 20 years and it’s swing­ing cur­rent­ly.

“Every 20 years par­ties in To­ba­go change hands and you find an elec­torate bor­der­ing on bore­dom, ap­a­thy, frus­tra­tion—they no have pa­tience. The pub­lic feels it’s no longer be­ing heard. So the elec­torate is pa­tient and gives peo­ple up to 20 years to prove them­selves- then things hap­pen.”

“This time it hasn’t changed hands but it’s swing­ing, cur­rent­ly —so the next few days will be telling on what hap­pens (re­gard­ing THA con­trol).

On whether the PNM stopped lis­ten­ing to the peo­ple, she added, “Every par­ty that’s around long enough be­gin tak­ing peo­ple for grant­ed. That’s how the bal­ance of pow­er changes—when peo­ple feel you’ve stopped lis­ten­ing to them.”

On whether she’s re­main­ing in pol­i­tics, she added, “My fo­cus is en­sur­ing To­bag­o­ni­ans can have a brighter fu­ture. My de­f­i­n­i­tion (of pol­i­tics) is lis­ten­ing to the peo­ple. I’ll con­tin­ue lis­ten­ing to them and find­ing ways of serv­ing the peo­ple.”

UNC deputy po­lit­i­cal leader Jear­lean John, a To­bag­on­ian de­scribed the 6-6 tie as a wake-up call for the PNM.

“They spent six years, lied their way in­to pow­er, ma­nip­u­lat­ed the peo­ple and be­haved shame­ful­ly. Every­thing is a front for them, shout­ing and in­sult­ing. PDP leader Far­ley Au­gus­tine is the ex­act op­po­site.”

She added, “De­ceased PNM lead­ers Er­ic Williams and Patrick Man­ning were pa­tri­ots, but not Row­ley. He shows he’s all for him­self. I’m so hap­py Ma­son Hall where he’s from went to PDP and To­bag­o­ni­ans showed him they’re not tak­ing him on again. The en­tire PNM has mor­phed in­to mi­ni Row­leys. But Row­ley, when you in a hole—like now—stop dig­ging.”