Camille McEach­nie

Wat­son Duke, leader of the Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP), re­tained his po­si­tion as the po­lit­i­cal leader of the par­ty at the par­ty’s first-ever in­ter­nal ex­ec­u­tive elec­tions help at the Belle Gar­den Mul­ti-Pur­pose Fa­cil­i­ty yes­ter­day. No one else con­test­ed the post.

Duke found­ed the PDP in 2016 to fight the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly’s Jan­u­ary 2017 elec­tions.

His par­ty won two of the twelve elec­toral dis­tricts, break­ing the mo­nop­oly held by the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment in the 2013 THA elec­tion.

At the PDP’s in­au­gur­al sum­mit on Sun­day, Dr Faith B Yis­rael and Far­ley Au­gus­tine re­tained po­si­tions as the par­ty’s deputy po­lit­i­cal lead­ers. Ali­cia Roberts-Pat­ter­son was al­so named deputy po­lit­i­cal leader of the par­ty.

In ad­di­tion to vot­ing for mem­bers of the na­tion­al coun­cil ex­ec­u­tive, they al­so rat­i­fied the par­ty’s con­sti­tu­tion. Among the is­sues now en­shrined in the con­sti­tu­tion, are the struc­ture of the par­ty’s hi­er­ar­chy and the age at which per­sons be­come el­i­gi­ble to join its ranks. Per­sons can join the par­ty at 14 years and be­come life­time mem­bers.