PNM To­ba­go Coun­cil po­lit­i­cal leader An­cil Den­nis has urged To­bag­o­ni­ans not to trade long-term de­vel­op­ment for short-term give­aways, bribes, or emp­ty promis­es as the gen­er­al elec­tion ap­proach­es.

“Take the ham­pers. Take the mon­ey. Take the drinks. Take the white oak and the pun­cheon. But don’t give up your fu­ture,” Den­nis told sup­port­ers at a po­lit­i­cal meet­ing in Char­lot­teville last night.

He called on vot­ers to con­sid­er what is at stake and to re­ject “ridicu­lous promis­es” from those who, he said, “aban­doned their re­spon­si­bil­i­ty” to To­ba­go.

“The same peo­ple who told you to ease them up when you need­ed help, they will be com­ing to you with $500 and $1,000,” he said. “I un­der­stand that thou­sands of ham­pers came to To­ba­go… take it, bless it, sanc­ti­fy it, cook it in your kitchen—but do not give away your vote for a short-term ben­e­fit.”

Den­nis cau­tioned that vot­ers were be­ing fed “im­pos­si­ble promis­es” that could not be fi­nanced, and said elect­ing the wrong gov­ern­ment would send the coun­try “on a first class tick­et straight to the IMF.”

He added, “A promise is a com­fort to a fool… On April 28, do not vote for promis­es. Vote for a PNM gov­ern­ment that is ready, ready and re­spon­si­ble.”

Crit­i­cis­ing the cur­rent To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly lead­er­ship, Den­nis claimed the ad­min­is­tra­tion had failed to de­liv­er even ba­sic ser­vices.

“It has been ne­glect. It has been dis­ap­point­ment. It has been fail­ure. It has been lies for the last three years,” he said. “They promised 3,000 per­ma­nent jobs and gave you ten days on, ten days off. To­ba­go has gone 25 years back­wards.”

Cit­ing stalled projects like the Char­lot­teville pavil­ion and faulty equip­ment af­fect­ing lo­cal fish­er­men, Den­nis said the THA had “aban­doned” To­ba­go East com­mu­ni­ties.

He al­so dis­missed the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty’s claim to in­de­pen­dence, call­ing them “the UNC in To­ba­go.”

“Don’t be fooled,” he said. “Far­ley Au­gus­tine and the TPP are part of the UNC… and the on­ly code they’re in­ter­est­ed in is the code to the Trea­sury.”

Den­nis urged vot­ers to sup­port the PNM’s de­vel­op­ment plans for the is­land, in­clud­ing the new air­port, ho­tel projects, and tourism ex­pan­sion.

“This is not a bribe vote. This is not a promise vote. This is your fu­ture.”