Duke: Don't send me to Parliament alone

Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) political leader Watson Duke says Tobago needs to elect, not one but both its candidates to Parliament in the general election on August 10.

As he addressed the opening of the party’s official headquarters at Port Mall Scarborough, Duke said,“We need to go down as a pair, there is no use sending me down alone.”

Duke is contesting the Tobago East seat.

He said: “I need to go down there with my colleague Tashia Grace Burris."

Burris is the party's candidate for Tobago West.

Duke continued, "This is what you call a political pair. Everybody has their pair: Batman had Robin, Ernie had Bert."

He added, "There is no use sending me down alone. So I am pleading today, that in as much as people are raising and saying you can win the east, it gives me no feeling of zest. What gives me the feeling of zest, is when I know we have conquered the east and the west.”

Burris said the opening of the party’s headquarters was testimony to what one man’s vision could achieve.

“We came through some dark times, 2013 to 2017 when there was no opposition in the Tobago House of Assembly was a period of dark times for Tobago.

"It was when those who we tasked with the responsibility for defending us gave up that responsibility... because in the shadow of defeat sometimes we fall and we stay on the ground and we don’t ever find a way to pick ourselves back up.

"Tobago people had no voice. We are yet still to understand the extent to which they wreaked havoc on this place during the time when they had no one to hold them to account and I say never again.”

She said this is the time for the voice of Tobagonians to be heard.

“My people have been suffering and they have been crying out and is only now they start to get a little ease.

"So, move Satan, we coming. Let we pass, do not stand in our way. The PDP is here to stay and it involves each and everyone of you."

The party’s deputy political leader Alicia Roberts-Patterson said the office would be a hub as she encouraged all of Tobago to visit to office to be represented.

“We do not discriminate. This office, yes its about politics, but its about people, it is about service, and it is about representation.

"As we go forward, we want to continue with our mantra ‘child by child, family by family and village by village."

Chairman Dr Sean Nedd said, through the office, the party would continue to pursue its goals which includes inclusive development, vision, action and integrity.