Duke: Winning party will have to come to us

Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) political leader Watson Duke says the political party which gets the majority of seats in Trinidad in the August 10 general election will have to negotiate with his party if it wins the two Tobago seats.

Duke stressed the negotiation must be carried out on the PDP’s terms.

He was addressing a political meeting at Gardenside carpark, Scarborough, on Saturday night.

The meeting took the form of drive-in, where motorists and supporters sat in their cars to view the meeting, which was also shown on a large screen.

Duke, who is one of three people contesting the Tobago East seat, said while he is not “really interested” in becoming prime minister, it is the position from which he must negotiate to advance the island’s development.

He presented a scenario if a political party wins 20 seats while the other gets 19. There are 41 constituencies, two of which are in Tobago.

“The man with the 20 (seats), they could go to the Parliament and say we have a majority so we declare so and so prime minister.

“But the Opposition would have spent millions to win. They would prefer to be in power than out of power because nobody likes to be in Opposition. Is a natural fact.

“If you are in a position and you know you can join with those two Tobago seats and you could still be in government, you prefer to be in government. This is what will make them say, okay Duke, be prime minister.”

Duke said in order to push development in Tobago they cannot accept any position other than prime minister.