Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes as­sent­ed to the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (Amend­ment) Act 2021 on March 16, 2021, mak­ing the leg­is­la­tion, passed in the Low­er House—Feb­ru­ary 19 and Sen­ate- March 2, law.

This paves the way for fresh elec­tions in To­ba­go af­ter the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) re­ports to Par­lia­ment on how it di­vid­ed the in­creased num­ber of elec­toral dis­tricts from 12 to 15.

The Act said the EBC has to cre­ate 15 seats with­in 90 days of the Act’s procla­ma­tion.

It al­so in­cludes a mech­a­nism to break the ex­ist­ing dead­lock that oc­curred as the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) and Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP) won six seats each in the Jan­u­ary 25 To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly elec­tions.

The stale­mate in the THA con­tin­ues as the par­ties have not solved how to con­vene the As­sem­bly and cre­ate a new ad­min­is­tra­tion.

Two To­ba­go busi­ness­women, rep­re­sent­ing ma­jor busi­ness or­gan­i­sa­tions on the is­land said the sit­u­a­tion can­not con­tin­ue.

Di­ane Hadad, head of the To­ba­go Chap­ter of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce (TTCIC) and Car­ol-Ann Birch­wood-James, vice-pres­i­dent of the To­ba­go Ho­tel and Tourism As­so­ci­a­tion, both say it is time for the par­ties to get back to the pro­posed pow­er-shar­ing ne­go­ti­a­tion ta­ble with me­di­a­tors.

Af­ter the par­ties’ first in-per­son meet­ing end­ed with dis­cord on March 17, the PDP called for an­oth­er meet­ing on March 22 with in­de­pen­dent ne­go­tia­tors.

The PNM said it is will­ing to meet but did not say whether it had agreed on the date or me­di­a­tors.

Hadad, a busi­ness­woman, told Guardian Me­dia she has three is­sues with the on­go­ing sit­u­a­tion.

“To­ba­go is in lim­bo. The out­come of the meet­ing showed that To­bag­o­ni­ans needs were not placed first. Al­so, they should have been a sound mind sit­ting in those meet­ings do­ing me­di­a­tion. I would hate to think that we are be­ing played, and it’s a gim­micky game go­ing on. It seems that peo­ple are play­ing for time to en­sure that they get their way. This caus­es suf­fer­ing for To­bag­o­ni­ans.”

She con­tin­ued, “It seems as though some peo­ple want to con­trol and place their peo­ple in places to get what they want to be done or cov­er their tracks for what they did.”

Birch­wood-James, who al­so owns and con­trols a large beach re­sort in To­ba­go said the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion is “un­ten­able.”

She said the PDP and PNM must meet again, but this time with a “skilled ne­go­tia­tor.”

“The 12 as­sem­bly­men must come to­geth­er with a chief ne­go­tia­tor. An ex­pe­ri­enced ne­go­tia­tor knows what to do to con­clude and de­cide whether there is any ba­sis for go­ing for­ward. They just can’t talk among them­selves.”

She added, “If you have no win­ners and no losers, you can­not have one set of peo­ple be­hav­ing as though they are win­ners. That is not good for democ­ra­cy.”

Mean­while, in a re­lease on Fri­day, March 19, the PNM said the THA’s Act #40 of 1996 would dic­tate the talks’ out­come.

It said the PDP has agreed to sup­port the PNM’s quest to fill the chief sec­re­tary and pre­sid­ing of­fi­cers po­si­tions.

It al­so said that based on the THA Act, the chief sec­re­tary is re­spon­si­ble for choos­ing the Sec­re­taries and as­sis­tant sec­re­taries.

The PDP on Wednes­day said it would not agree to the PNM de­ter­min­ing who is placed in po­si­tions.

“No six is greater than any six...and the PNM can­not be­have as though they are in con­trol.”