Gail Alexan­der

Elec­tion ac­tion 2021 starts this morn­ing.

To­day is Nom­i­na­tion Day for can­di­dates in the up­com­ing To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) polls and by-elec­tions oc­cur­ring in five mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tion seats in Trinidad.

Both elec­tions are on Jan­u­ary 25.

This will be the 11th THA elec­tion af­ter the As­sem­bly’s term end­ed last year.

The five by-elec­tions are to re­place coun­cil­lors who moved on to be­come Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment in the Au­gust 10 gen­er­al elec­tions.

The by-elec­tions are in the fol­low­ing dis­tricts: Point Fortin (Hol­ly­wood), Princes Town (St Mary’s/Hin­dus­tan), Ch­agua­nas (Cunu­pia), Ari­ma (Ari­ma Cen­tral) and Diego Mar­tin (Morne Co­co/Alyce Glen).

How­ev­er, the Peo­ples’ Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) which had an­nounced in ear­ly De­cem­ber, Shaz­am Lal­loos­ingh as its St Mary’s /Hin­dus­tan can­di­date, changed that to Mar­ti­na Loubon-Le Gen­dre last week, the par­ty con­firmed yes­ter­day.

Can­di­dates who will con­test will to­day file nom­i­na­tion pa­pers with Elec­tion and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) of­fi­cers for the var­i­ous ar­eas from 9 am.

The PNM is con­test­ing both THA polls and the five by-elec­tions.

The Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) is not con­test­ing the THA polls and will con­test the five by-elec­tions on­ly.

Among the PNM’s THA op­po­nents is the uni­ty plat­form of the To­ba­go For­wards (TF) and Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP).

The PDP and TF formed a coali­tion last No­vem­ber. Both the PNM and PDP/TF plat­form have full slates of 12 can­di­dates.

Al­so ex­pect­ed to con­test the THA polls is in­de­pen­dent can­di­date An­tho­ny Hec­tor plus the UTP’s Richar­do Phillip and CARM’s Nick­o­cy Phillips.

To­ba­go’s elec­torate has risen from 48,677 in 2016 to 50,789.

Political leader of the Progressive Democratic Patriots Watson Duke.

Bound­aries re­main un­changed.

The PNM won the last THA polls, but the PDP took two of the 12 THA seats. This elec­tion will be the first THA poll in­volv­ing a fe­male leader - To­ba­go PNM leader Tra­cy David­son-Ce­les­tine.

Both the rul­ing PNM and the Op­po­si­tion UNC will launch re­spec­tive cam­paigns to present can­di­dates tonight with vir­tu­al events.

PNM po­lit­i­cal leader, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley will ad­dress the PNM’s 8 pm meet­ing along­side mem­bers of the PNM’s To­ba­go Coun­cil.

UNC Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar will speak at the par­ty’s 7.30 pm meet­ing themed “To­geth­er We Can”.

The PNM holds three of the by-elec­tion seats - Hol­ly­wood, Ari­ma Cen­tral and Morne Co­co/Alyce Glen.

The UNC holds St Mary’s /Hin­dus­tan and Cunu­pia.

The PNM’s by-elec­tion can­di­dates are Leslie Chang Fong (Hol­ly­wood), Mar­ti­na Loubon-Le Gen­dre (St Mary’s/Hin­dus­tan), Rasheed ‘Patos’ Ali (Cunu­pia), Dr. Hi­lary Bernard (Ari­ma Cen­tral) and Jinelle Schulere-Smart (Morne Co­co/Alyce Glen).

PNM PRO Lau­rel Leza­ma- Lee Sing said the par­ty’s screen­ing team de­cid­ed last week to re­place Lal­loos­ingh with Loubon-Le Gen­dre . She could not give a rea­son, be­yond say­ing the PNM would of­fer the best can­di­dates pos­si­ble. She couldn’t com­ment on re­cent so­cial me­dia spec­u­la­tion about the change.

How­ev­er, Lezame-Lee Sing lat­er told Guardian Me­dia that un­til nom­i­na­tion pa­pers are for­mal­ly filed and ac­cept­ed on Nom­i­na­tion Day, “the PNM con­sid­ers nom­i­nees are prospec­tive can­di­dates”.

“The screen­ing com­mit­tee re­serves its right to make nec­es­sary ad­just­ments up un­til nom­i­na­tion pa­pers are filed and ac­cept­ed by EBC’s re­turn­ing of­fi­cers,” Leza­ma Lee-Sing said.

Leza­ma-Lee Sing said Loubon-Le Gen­dre had un­suc­cess­ful­ly con­test­ed the New Grant/Table­land seat in the last Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tion and was al­so among the five nom­i­nees for the Moru­ga con­stituen­cy for the Au­gust 10 gen­er­al elec­tion. But Win­ston Pe­ters was cho­sen for that seat and he lost to UNC’s Michelle Ben­jamin.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley addresses supporters at a PNM meeting in Thick Village in July last year.

Rishi Ragoonath

The UNC’s by-elec­tion can­di­dates are Ty­lon Far­rell (St Mary’s/ Hin­dus­tan) Richard Sukdeo (Cunu­pia) Daniel John (Hol­ly­wood), Shel­don Gar­cia (Ari­ma Cen­tral) and John Laquis (Morne Co­co /Alyce Glen).

At least one In­de­pen­dent will con­test the by-elec­tion - Ariel AJ Saun­ders in St Mary’s/Hin­dus­tan.

UNC tar­gets PNM by-elec­tion seats

While the UNC isn’t con­test­ing THA polls, UNC chair­man Dave Tan­coo said yes­ter­day, “We haven’t tak­en a par­ty po­si­tion to en­dorse any con­tender in To­ba­go but of course we do have a firm po­si­tion of be­ing op­posed to the PNM in any elec­tion. We stand against PNM’s cor­rup­tion and mis­man­age­ment and we look for­ward to change. This is a new year.”

He added, “Where by-elec­tions are con­cerned, we in­tend to hold the seats in the Moru­ga and Ch­agua­nas ar­eas which we pre­vi­ous­ly held and we’re aim­ing at the oth­er seats held by the PNM, specif­i­cal­ly be­cause the PNM won those seats by 500 and 600 votes in the last elec­tion and at that time 5,000 to 6,0000 peo­ple didn’t come out to vote. There’s al­so a good chance giv­en PNM’s mis­man­age­ment of the econ­o­my and the fact that its promis­es are more fic­tion­al than fact as peo­ple are see­ing - and this will con­tin­ue in 2021.”

Tan­coo con­tin­ued, “Over 10 pro­vi­sions of the 2021 Bud­get be­gan Jan­u­ary 1 and some like the Mo­tor Ve­hi­cle Tax and ban on im­port­ed ma­te­r­i­al will pe­nalise peo­ple in busi­ness. This will like­ly in­crease un­em­ploy­ment, and de­crease trad­ing at a time when we should be en­cour­ag­ing busi­ness as peo­ple will have to cope with prop­er­ty tax and util­i­ty hikes this year.”

“Al­so, some ship­ping quar­ters are ask­ing for pay­ment in US dol­lars. That is le­gal but the TT dol­lar is le­gal ten­der here so what they’re do­ing is un­eth­i­cal. But this de­mand is based on the fact of Gov­ern­ment’s mis­han­dling of the econ­o­my and the forex regime.”

The EBC has ex­tend­ed the va­lid­i­ty of ex­pired iden­ti­fi­ca­tion cards to June 30. Re­new­al process­es be­gin to­day and peo­ple must call EBC of­fices to make ap­point­ments for this. The EBC said it will have ex­tend­ed hours, in­clud­ing on Sat­ur­days, to fa­cil­i­tate walk-ins.

Political leader of the People’s National Movement (PNM) Tobago Council, Tracy Davidson Celestine.

TO­BA­GO HOUSE OF AS­SEM­BLY CAN­DI­DATES

PNM

1. Par­latu­vi­er/L’Anse Four­mi/Spey­side - Ro­ry Dil­lon

2. Rox­bor­ough/De­laford - Neil Beck­les

3. Black Rock/Whim/Spring Gar­den - Kelvon Mor­ris

4. Lam­beau/Sig­nal Hill -Tra­cy David­son-Ce­les­tine

5. Ba­co­let/Mt St George - Joel Jack

6. Scar­bor­ough/Calder Hall - Marslyn Melville-Jack

7. Prov­i­dence/Ma­son Hall/Mo­ri­ah - Kwe­si Des Vi­gnes

8. Belle Gar­den/Good­wood – Box­il Bai­ley

9. Ply­mouth/Gold­en Lane – Melis­sa James Guy

10. Canaan/Bon Ac­cord - Clarence Ja­cob

11. Bethel/Mt Irvine - Shomari Hec­tor

12. Buc­coo/Mt Pleas­ant - An­cil Den­nis

PDP/TO­BA­GO FOR­WARDS

• ↓Par­latu­vi­er/L’anse Four­mi/Spey­side - Far­ley Au­gus­tine (Deputy Po­lit­i­cal Leader)

• ↓Good­wood/Belle Gar­den West - Dr Faith B Yis­rael

• ↓Buc­coo/Mt Pleas­ant - Jamie Baird

• ↓Bethel/Mt Irvine – Pas­tor Ter­ance Baynes (To­ba­go For­wards Leader)

• ↓Lam­beau/ Sig­nal Hill – Wayne “Wasp” Clarke

• ↓Belle Gar­den East/ Rox­bor­ough/ De­laford – Wat­son Duke (PDP Po­lit­i­cal Leader)

• ↓Ply­mouth/ Gold­en Lane – Zor­isha Hack­ette

• ↓Scar­bor­ough/ Calder Hall – Trevor James

• ↓Ba­co­let/ Mt St George – Megan Mor­ri­son

• ↓Prov­i­dence/ Ma­son Hall/Mo­ri­ah – Ian “Whitey” Pol­lard

• ↓Canaan/Bon Ac­cord – Joel “Nuttsy” Samp­son

• ↓Black Rock/Whim/Spring Gar­den –Ab­by Tay­lor

IN­DE­PEN­DENT

• ↓Black Rock/Whim/Spring Gar­den- An­tho­ny Hec­tor

UTP

• ↓Buc­coo/Mt Pleas­ant - Ri­car­do Phillip

CARM

• ↓Buc­coo- Mt Pleas­ant- Nick­o­cy Phillips