All PDP posts up for grabs

All positions on the executive of the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) – including political leader – will be up for grabs during the party’s inaugural summit on Sunday at the Belle Garden Multi-Purpose Facility.

Outgoing political leader Watson Duke said so during a news conference on Wednesday at the party’s Scarborough headquarters.

However, Duke, who represents the Roxborough/Delaford electoral district, refused to say exactly how many positions are being contested.

“There are many positions and we will reveal that at the appropriate time but we are saying leave something for the moment,” he told reporters.

The summit, which is expected to begin at 5pm, follows the party’s grand October 27 campaign launch at the Magdalena Grand Beach & Golf Resort, Lowlands.

On Sunday, outgoing interim chairman Harrigan Henry is expected to declare all seats vacant.

The party has two deputy leaders, Minority Assemblyman and Speyside/Parlatuvier/L’Anse Fourmi representative Farley Augustine and councillor Dr Faith BYisrael.

Augustine said voting for positions on the party’s executive and the ratification of its Constitution will be the key items on the agenda.

“I am happy to let you know that we do have a team of legal minds, local and elsewhere within the Commonwealth to review the Constitution,” he said.

“So, we have had several layers of revision of the Constitution. We had membership input from elders in Tobago in an effort to close all of the loopholes and to ensure that the Constitution aligns itself nicely with the Constitution of the Republic and that it safeguards people’s human rights.

“But, moreso, because it allows for what we like to call open and transparent democracy. That is the ethos and philosophical underpinnings of the Progressive Democratic Patriots.”

The PDP was formed in 2016, before the Tobago House of Assembly election.

The party won two of the 12 seats in the Assembly: Speyside/L’Anse Fourmi/Parlatuvier and Roxborough/Delaford.