Chief Secretary: Keep THA elections clean

Chief Secretary Ancil Dennis, in his Tobago Day address, called for clean campaigning in the 2021 THA elections.

On Friday, Dennis implored all political parties to stick to the issues and dissuade from mud-slinging, hostility and conflict.

The THA election will be held not later than February 2021.

As Tobagonians eagerly await the announcement of the election date, political parties have already started virtual political meetings and campaigning throughout the 12 electoral districts.

And while the pre-election race seems far from dirty, so far, Dennis felt it necessary to advise political parties and supporters to be on their best behaviour.

He said, "Tobago is too small of an island for much of the acrimony that surfaces around this time.

"The THA has since been dissolved in order to pave the way for the next local elections. And I must take this momentous occasion when we celebrate not just this essential institution, but also our spirit as Tobagonians to remind us to protect it during this season."

He added, "Therefore we must remember that at the end of it all, it is essentially us against the issues and not us against one another.”

Expanding on his comments, Dennis said, "I'm simply taking about the fact that sometimes during this election season we tend to get into a lot of personal attacks, rancour and malicious attacks on our opponents, so we ought to remember as Tobagonians all of us would have to live here with each other even after the elections."

Dennis said Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) political leader Watson Duke calling two Tobago women "stink and dutty" before the August 10 general election was a perfect example of what should not happen.

"So for example, there was some really derogatory remarks made by Watson Duke against two or three Tobago young women during the last general election campaign. So I'm hoping that we would conduct ourselves this time around with a high level of maturity, where the focus will be on the issues at hand and not necessarily on personal and malicious attacks against opponents.

"It should be us facing up to the issues, treating with the issues rather than getting into personal squabbles against each other as Tobagonians."

Election mud-slinging and inflammatory remarks have been a part of the previous elections in Tobago.

Days before the 2015 general election, former Tobago Forwards leader Christlyn Moore, during a morning show, infamously called on Tobagonians to poison water given to Trinidadians trying to influence the election.

She said, "When they come in yuh house, you know what, don't feed them; we say treat them with scant courtesy, they must not be encouraged to come back. I say drop Visine in their water, give them diarrhoea, they must go home."

Days later, after she was condemned for the statement, she explained her comment was never intended to promote violence or promote hurt to any Trinidadian.

Another inflammatory comment that may never be forgotten in Tobago was made in the 2013 THA election by Hilton Sandy, then PNM candidate for Roxborough/Delaford.

He said during a political meeting days before the election, "Before I leave, I want to leave this with you all. There is a boat coming from Calcutta. Do you all know where Calcutta is? After the January 21, this boat will be coming to Tobago full with these people and they will invade Tobago if you all did not vote for the PNM.

"Be strong, do not let anyone distract you, you are focused, you are on a good ship, because as I told another crew down the road: there is a ship at Calcutta ship waiting to sail to Tobago. That ship is waiting to sail to Tobago; they are waiting to get the results of this election. If you bring the wrong results, Calcutta ship is coming down for you. You must stop that ship."

The PNM party was condemned heavily for allegedly inciting racism with the "Calcutta ship" remark.

In the 2017 THA election candidate for Canaan/ Bon Accord Clarence Jacob was advised by former chief secretary Kelvin Charles to issue an apology to his PDP opponent Nyron Leung for unsavoury remarks.