Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

With the PNM To­ba­go Coun­cil close to com­plet­ing its list of can­di­dates for the up­com­ing To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) elec­tions, po­lit­i­cal leader An­cil Den­nis is ask­ing sup­port­ers to give the par­ty a fresh chance.

In a tele­phone in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Den­nis said he un­der­stands that some peo­ple had been dis­ap­point­ed with the par­ty in the past or still have con­cerns about its di­rec­tion. He be­lieves a new team and a new ap­proach will help re­build trust and bring pos­i­tive change to To­ba­go.

“This is a new sea­son,” Den­nis said. “We are prepar­ing and ready to re­turn good gov­er­nance to the is­land. Peo­ple will soon hear about our plans and how we in­tend to man­age To­ba­go’s af­fairs dif­fer­ent­ly this time.”

His com­ments came af­ter the par­ty’s sec­ond can­di­date screen­ing ses­sion on Tues­day night. Dur­ing that ses­sion, 11 nom­i­nees were in­ter­viewed and six were con­firmed as prospec­tive can­di­dates. This brings the to­tal num­ber of con­firmed can­di­dates to 13 out to con­test the polls where 15 elec­toral dis­tricts will be at stake.

The two dis­tricts that are still with­out prospec­tive PNM can­di­dates are Bagatelle/Ba­co­let and Par­latu­vi­er/L’Anse Four­mi/Spey­side. Nom­i­na­tions for Par­latu­vi­er/L’Anse Four­mi/Spey­side re­opened yes­ter­day.

Den­nis said the par­ty plans to com­plete all screen­ings be­fore the end of this month. He ex­pressed con­fi­dence in the can­di­dates cho­sen so far, de­scrib­ing them as a strong mix of youth and ex­pe­ri­ence, each with a sol­id record of com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice and well-con­nect­ed with their lo­cal ar­eas.

“They are peo­ple who are of the peo­ple, for the peo­ple, and who will serve their com­mu­ni­ties well if elect­ed,” Den­nis said. “I’m very sat­is­fied and ex­cit­ed about the team we have so far.”

The PNM has been re­build­ing its pres­ence in To­ba­go af­ter suf­fer­ing a heavy de­feat in the De­cem­ber 2021 THA elec­tions, when the Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP) won 14 of the 15 seats. Since then, the par­ty has un­der­gone lead­er­ship changes.

The cur­rent THA term ex­pires on De­cem­ber 6. The THA Act re­quires the is­land re­turn to the polls with­in 90 days of that date, which means To­ba­go could hold elec­tions as ear­ly as the first quar­ter of 2026 un­less the THA is dis­solved ear­li­er through a mo­tion brought to the As­sem­bly Leg­is­la­ture.

Den­nis has not yet an­nounced the names of the cho­sen can­di­dates but promis­es this will hap­pen in time to come.