The Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance (NTA) has pledged to press ahead with its po­lit­i­cal mis­sion, an­nounc­ing in­ter­nal elec­tions for Sep­tem­ber 5, this year, fol­low­ing the res­ig­na­tion of found­ing po­lit­i­cal leader Gary Grif­fith last week.

The par­ty failed to win a seat in the April 28 gen­er­al elec­tion.

In a state­ment is­sued yes­ter­day, the NTA’s in­ter­im po­lit­i­cal leader, Com­man­der Nor­man Din­di­al, who has as­sumed lead­er­ship du­ties, said the elec­tions would be “fair, trans­par­ent, and in­clu­sive—a true re­flec­tion of our de­mo­c­ra­t­ic val­ues”.

Grif­fith stepped down short­ly af­ter the elec­tion. Din­di­al said the move re­flect­ed “trans­paren­cy, in­tegri­ty, and ac­count­abil­i­ty—val­ues too of­ten ab­sent in our na­tion’s po­lit­i­cal land­scape”.

“In West­min­ster-style pol­i­tics, such tran­si­tions are cus­tom­ary; in Trinidad and To­ba­go, they re­main rare. That is pre­cise­ly what makes the NTA dif­fer­ent,” he said.

Din­di­al re­ject­ed any no­tion of re­treat, say­ing the par­ty was nev­er formed to chase quick wins.

“We are not de­feat­ed—we are just get­ting start­ed. We were built for the long road ahead—to bring re­al, last­ing trans­for­ma­tion to this na­tion. We en­tered this elec­tion with courage, in­tegri­ty, and a peo­ple-first vi­sion.”

Din­di­al de­scribed the NTA as “a move­ment whose pres­ence, mes­sage and mis­sion are res­onat­ing with the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go”.

Sev­er­al mem­bers of the par­ty’s gov­er­nance team have al­so stepped down to al­low for “re­new­al and fresh per­spec­tives”. Din­di­al said their con­tri­bu­tions had laid the foun­da­tion for the next phase of the par­ty’s growth.

Re­flect­ing on lessons from the cam­paign, Din­di­al said the NTA would stay the course and con­tin­ue build­ing its plat­form.

“By 2030, the NTA will not be on the side­lines—we will be at the fore­front of na­tion­al lead­er­ship.”