Tsoiafatt Angus expected to contest THA seat as independent

Tobago Festivals Commission chairman Dr Denise Tsoiafatt Angus is expected to file her nomination papers on Monday to contest the Scarborough/Calder Hall seat as an independent candidate for the January 25, Tobago House of Assembly (THA) election, sources told Sunday Newsday.

The PNM’s screening committee, headed by Tobago Council political leader Tracy Davidson-Celestine, rejected Tsoiafatt Angus after she was screened for the seat on October 26.

Marslyn Melville-Jack, the Secretary for Community Development, Enterprise Development and Labour, who was also screened for the seat, got the nod.

The screening committee’s decision, though, was met with dissatisfaction among some residents of the electoral district.

It was reported that three of the five party groups favoured Tsoiafatt Angus over Melville-Jack as the prospective candidate.

The groups claimed Melville-Jack did not provide proper representation over the past four years and had called on the screening committee to rescind its decision.

Some residents also felt Tsoiafatt Angus, a former THA presiding officer, was sidelined by Davidson-Celestine after its June 26 run-off election.

Davidson-Celestine won the leadership of the party with the support of Tsoiafatt Angus and Secretary for Finance and the Economy Joel Jack, both of whom had unsuccessfully contested the party’s leadership in the June 19 internal election.

At a Tobago Council news conference on December 29, 2020, Davidson-Celestine said the party did not intend to remove Melville-Jack as the candidate for the area.

“The thing is that you will always have those who are for and those who are against when a candidate has been selected,” she had said.

“But based on the process that we would have carried out, I would have indicated to members of the media that it was a very rigorous process in terms of the selection of the candidate for that specific electoral district.

“And, at this point in time, we are very satisfied with the outcome of that process and the candidate who has been selected to bring home that seat on behalf of the People’s National Movement.”

Davidson-Celestine is contesting the Lambeau/Signal Hill seat.