PDP: We made election mistakes

Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) deputy political leader Farley Augustine has promised a new approach to politics as he acknowledged some of the errors that may have cost the party in the August 10 general election.

“I am sorry,” Augustine said at a virtual press conference on Tuesday.

PDP's political leader Watson Duke, who received 5,866 votes, lost to PNM's Ayanna Webster-Roy (7,127 votes) in Tobago East while PDP's Tashia Grace Burris (4,501 votes) was swept aside by PNM's Shamfa Cudjoe (9,275 votes) in Tobago West.

Augustine said the party spent considerable time over the last week assessing its errors and missteps, analysing what went well and looking at the way forward. He said particular attention was paid to its message, adding that it was unfortunate Tobagonians did not buy-in.

He said, “Our message was simple, and it is that Tobago’s development will go nowhere until Tobago gets its autonomy, that’s the simple message that we had during the general election.

“If Tobago’s development is to expand, if Tobago is to expand beyond where it is now and to create an economy that is successful… then Tobago has to fix its governance issue and Tobago has to fix its relationship with Trinidad and we felt then as we still feel now… that we needed two strong candidates, two stronger Members of Parliament who would advocate on our behalf and who would agitate rather for Tobago to get its autonomy post-haste.”

He acknowledged the party's missteps along the way while noting there were times when the messaging became muddied.

“Admittedly, there were areas where we allowed our political enemies to control the narrative and to take us down a path that we should not have gone. And so, for our members and those who have been clamouring for us to address that, I wish to say that all of that is behind us.

"We acknowledge such errors and we apologise sincerely for those errors. We wish to be very clear going forward that we hear you loud and clear that for us in Tobago, we require a higher standard of political discourse. It must go beyond false accusations and allegations; it must go beyond a desire to covertly introduce racism to the Tobago politics; it must go beyond people creating fake posters and posting them up… we need real discussions on real issues that affect the average Tobagonians,” he said.

Augustine said the PDP has listened to concerns of the people and is not too proud to admit its mistakes.

“Tobagonians want us to address the issues that mean something to their lives and so we as a party, it is something that we have listened to, we have heard you loud and clear, we have heard you from every quarters.

“In fact, you registered your disapproval by many of you not turning out to vote despite giving the commitment that you would vote for us and unlike parties on the other side, I can tell you that this is one party that is not afraid to say I am sorry. This is one party that is not afraid to pivot from the things that were wrong and this is one party that is not afraid to demonstrate growth.”

Augustine said notwithstanding the defeats in Tobago East and Tobago West the PDP gained considerable ground, noting that this trajectory points to the fact that Tobagonians are waking up to “the reality that if we are to have a better Tobago, it cannot be with those on the other side."

Augustine also addressed comments made by his political leader on the platform two days before the election, when he referred to two Tobago women as "dutty, stinking girls."

Duke claimed the women were defaming him on social media and promised to seek redress in court.

Newsday spoke to residents of Tobago East the morning after the election and several people claimed his crude words affected their willingness to vote for PDP.

Augustine added, “Sure, that is a factor that the party considered, sure it is something that I discussed with Mr Duke and it is something that is regrettable. Mr Duke feels hurt and feels as though people are wrongly accusing him, not only that... people are making these accusations simply and only for political gain, no other substantive reasons and you could see where those making those claims are gloating afterwards because they think they would have made political gains out of those comments. "Notwithstanding that, we do feel that we should have addressed that differently, we do feel that the way it was addressed was not the best way to have addressed that particular issue.”