ELIZ­A­BETH GON­ZA­LES

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

The po­lit­i­cal land­scape is heat­ing up in To­ba­go as the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) launched its can­di­dates, with its leader in­struct­ing them to knock on every door to win sup­port.

On Sun­day evening, the TPP of­fi­cial­ly re­vealed its prospec­tive can­di­dates at a spe­cial con­ven­tion at Rovanel’s Re­sort, Store Bay Lo­cal Road, Bon Ac­cord. David Thomas will con­test the elec­tion for To­ba­go East and Joel Samp­son for To­ba­go West.

Re­tired fire of­fi­cer Thomas was al­ready named for To­ba­go East. But in a sur­prise move, the par­ty chose Samp­son to chal­lenge the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s Sham­fa Cud­joe-Lewis for To­ba­go West. Cud­joe-Lewis is the in­cum­bent MP.

Both can­di­dates said they are con­fi­dent, com­mit­ted to be­ing with the peo­ple, and not in­tim­i­dat­ed by the PNM. Samp­son, who de­feat­ed the PNM in the 2021 To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly elec­tions, be­lieves he can re­peat that suc­cess on a na­tion­al lev­el.

Po­lit­i­cal leader Far­ley Au­gus­tine said the goal is ne­go­ti­at­ing pow­er, not just win­ning seats. The par­ty hopes win­ning both seats will give To­ba­go stronger bar­gain­ing pow­er.

“Over the next 35 days, we have a hard task ahead. We have to ed­u­cate every To­bag­on­ian. I want you to know that elec­tions are not won with big fan­cy trucks, bright lights, most speak­er cars on the road, not by who is the loud­est. This is the sea­son to go knock­ing on every door,” Au­gus­tine said.

Speak­ing to the can­di­dates, he said, “We are send­ing you to Port-of-Spain be­cause what hap­pened, what tran­spired with the con­struc­tion of the air­port should nev­er hap­pen again. You see, that project start­ed be­fore we came in­to of­fice, and the pre­ced­ing To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly signed away all of your rights to their col­leagues in Port-of-Spain. And that’s why it’s a dan­ger­ous thing putting them in charge of the THA and putting them al­so in charge of your busi­ness in Port-of-Spain.”

On the is­sue of for­eign ex­change, Au­gus­tine said the par­ty in­tends to chal­lenge the cur­rent sys­tem.

“Joel Samp­son, you are go­ing to Port-of-Spain be­cause this coun­try has a mas­sive forex is­sue. Over the last 10 years, the econ­o­my of Trinidad and To­ba­go shrunk by at least 17 per cent. We have the slow­est growth rate in the en­tire Caribbean re­gion. And when you’re try­ing to buy a lit­tle thing on­line from Shein or Ama­zon, when you’re try­ing to make a lit­tle va­ca­tion, you have to suf­fer for US$200. You have to beg. You have to go on the black mar­ket to get it. Mean­while, their friends are get­ting all the US they want.”

He promised an end to chal­lenges in ar­eas such as town and coun­try plan­ning, the Dis­pute Res­o­lu­tion Com­mis­sion (DRC) rul­ing, au­ton­o­my, and To­ba­go’s rep­re­sen­ta­tion on na­tion­al boards.

“We are send­ing you to Port-of-Spain be­cause To­bag­o­ni­ans with sense must be mem­bers of the board. We are send­ing you to Port-of-Spain be­cause the DRC rul­ing must be re­vised. When it was first giv­en, To­ba­go was just around 4 per cent of the na­tion­al pop­u­la­tion. Now we are just over 5 per cent, and so the days of 4.03 per cent must come to an end. It must start at 5.8 per cent.” —E Gon­za­les