Phillips: Elect me as THA presiding officer

Why not elect me as the presiding officer?

This is the question being asked by political leader of Unity of the People (UTP) Nickocy Phillips.

At a recent news conference, 31-year-old Philips said: “Why not elect me as the presiding officer of the Tobago House of Assembly where I can work with both political leaders and the assemblymen to decide, with the Chief Secretary, a date to set for election, dissolve the legislature and let’s go back to the polls. I would immediately resign when that is done.”

This, Phillips said, is the best solution to resolve the January 25 Tobago House of Assembly (THA) six-six electoral deadlock involving the People's National Movement (PNM) and the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP). Both parties met several times at the Assembly Legislature with hopes of selecting a presiding officer, but all failed.

Phillips believes the PNM and PDP should select someone who is not aligned to either parties to sit in the chair of the presiding officer.

“If you so care about the people of Tobago and so want to move Tobago forward, that is my proposal and my request publicly.

“We’ve been having too much closed-door discussion that’s not amounting to anything, and the people are fed up. So I decided to make my proposal publicly so that the public can hear and think about it and then push and force the hand of the two political parties to do the right thing.”

Phillips said written correspondence has been sent to both political parties inviting them to meet Phillips privately to find a solution.