ELIZ­A­BETH GON­ZA­LES

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Clash­es marred the nom­i­na­tion day process in To­ba­go as po­lit­i­cal can­di­dates squared off, forc­ing po­lice to call in re­in­force­ments.

But even in all of the chaos, all can­di­dates suc­cess­ful­ly filed their pa­pers of­fi­cial­ly start­ing the bat­tle for the is­land’s two seats.

It all be­gan when a To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) sup­port­er walked up to a Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment group of sup­port­ers while mak­ing a so­cial me­dia video. 

The sup­port­er claimed she was pro­voked and promised to seek le­gal re­dress for as­sault. 

As she ar­gued with PNM sup­port­ers, she said, “Al­lyuh leave me, it’s a free To­ba­go. I tap­ing my thing and she come and chook me.”

The at­mos­phere re­sem­bled a po­lit­i­cal war zone and seemed poised to turn in­to a phys­i­cal bat­tle.

Po­lice had to step in, but the com­mo­tion didn’t end there.

Ten­sions con­tin­ued to run high at the To­ba­go West nom­i­na­tion cen­tre at Calder Hall Mul­ti­pur­pose Fa­cil­i­ty.

Min­utes af­ter the first clash, a stan­doof un­fold­ed. This time, Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots leader Wat­son Duke was at the cen­tre of it.

He ar­rived at the Re­turn­ing Of­fi­cer’s lo­ca­tion, ready to sub­mit his nom­i­na­tion, on­ly to be stopped by po­lice. They told him he could not en­ter the com­pound be­cause an­oth­er can­di­date was there.

Duke, though, re­fused to leave the com­pound. He said there was no rea­son for him to be ar­rest­ed.

As the sit­u­a­tion quelled, an­oth­er fight brewed out­side - be­tween TPP and PDP sup­port­ers. 

The ten­sion es­ca­lat­ed when TPP deputy po­lit­i­cal leader Faith Breb­nor stepped in. She asked her sup­port­ers to calm down.

De­spite the ten­sions, all To­ba­go West can­di­dates said they were con­fi­dent. 

In­cum­bent MP Sham­fa Cud­joe was all smiles.

She said, “I feel very con­fi­dent, we have been walk­ing, in­ter­act­ing with the peo­ple, the feed­back has been good so I feel con­fi­dent.”

The To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty rolled out with a sea of sup­port­ers and the PDP went all out, rolling out a green and black car­pet. 

TPP To­ba­go West can­di­date Samp­son said his in­tegri­ty and hu­mil­i­ty were why he felt con­fi­dent go­ing in­to the elec­tion race.

“I’m blessed by God, I’m al­ways con­fi­dent.”

PDP To­ba­go East can­di­date, Cur­tis Dou­glas, said his de­ci­sion to con­test was a call by the peo­ple. 

But not every­one want­ed the spec­ta­cle. The Pa­tri­ot­ic Front’s Aretha Clarke, in­de­pen­dent can­di­date Leroy George and IDA can­di­date Kaye Trot­man walked in alone, say­ing there was no need for fan­fare.