The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment To­ba­go Coun­cil has opened nom­i­na­tions for can­di­dates to con­test the up­com­ing To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) elec­tions, which are con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly due in De­cem­ber 2025. 

Po­lit­i­cal leader An­cil Den­nis said this is more than just find­ing can­di­dates—it’s about find­ing true lead­ers. 

“This is not just about se­lect­ing can­di­dates, it is about iden­ti­fy­ing lead­ers who will shape the fu­ture of To­ba­go. We are call­ing on men and women of in­tegri­ty, vi­sion, and heart to step for­ward. To­ba­go needs you now more than ever,” Den­nis said. 

In a state­ment is­sued by the Coun­cil’s ex­ec­u­tive yes­ter­day morn­ing, the par­ty said it is invit­ing “com­mit­ted, com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven in­di­vid­u­als with a pas­sion for pub­lic ser­vice” to of­fer them­selves for se­lec­tion in all 15 elec­toral dis­tricts. 

It said sub­mis­sions can be de­liv­ered to the dis­trict sec­re­taries or the PNM To­ba­go Coun­cil Head­quar­ters at Robin­son Street, Scar­bor­ough. The dead­line for ap­pli­ca­tions is May 28. 

The par­ty said it is cur­rent­ly un­der­go­ing a pe­ri­od of re­new­al and re­or­gan­i­sa­tion, and that the nom­i­na­tion process is a crit­i­cal step in build­ing a new, peo­ple-cen­tred team fo­cused on progress, ac­count­abil­i­ty, and de­liv­ery. 

The PNM To­ba­go Coun­cil said it re­mained “com­mit­ted to To­ba­go’s de­vel­op­ment and is prepar­ing to con­test all seats” when vot­ers go to the poll lat­er this year. 

Mean­while, Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine has con­firmed that there will be no ear­ly THA elec­tion un­less his team agrees and sup­ports it. He em­pha­sised that, un­like the cen­tral Gov­ern­ment, the THA op­er­ates un­der a fixed-term sys­tem, and any de­ci­sion to hold an ear­ly elec­tion would re­quire a de­bate and ma­jor­i­ty agree­ment with­in the as­sem­bly. 

Au­gus­tine stat­ed, “The de­ci­sion to hold an ear­ly elec­tion can­not be mine. Un­like the cen­tral Gov­ern­ment, the Chief Sec­re­tary can­not dis­solve the House. The THA has a fixed-date sys­tem where it dis­solves au­to­mat­i­cal­ly on its fourth an­niver­sary, and then elec­tions must be held with­in 35 to 90 days”.

The last THA elec­tion was held on De­cem­ber 6, 2021, re­sult­ing in a 14-1 vic­to­ry for the Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP). How­ev­er, in De­cem­ber 2022, Au­gus­tine, along with 13 oth­er PDP mem­bers, re­signed from the par­ty and formed the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP), which cur­rent­ly holds the ma­jor­i­ty in the As­sem­bly.