PDP's George eyes strong turnout of young voters

The Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) is anticipating that more young voters will come out and get involved in the December 6 Tobago House of Assembly (THA) elections.

Speaking with the media after filing his nomination papers at the Calder Hall Multipurpose Facility on Monday, PDP’s candidate for Plymouth/Black Rock Niall George said, “I am someone that has the ears of all age categories, but there seems to be a frenzy among the young people to go to the polls this time around. There is a keener interest in the way forward with youths in Tobago.”

Addressing the geographical adjudtment to the electoral district, George said, “It is challenging, because I would have been part of Plymouth/ Golden Lane and I am in a newly-constituted seat of Plymouth/ Black Rock. It is a much larger geographical area with smaller clusters, but it has been encouraging.”

He said the aim at this time is to take the message of all-inclusiveness into the electoral district.

“The policy of the PDP is people first, and it doesn’t matter where you’re from; what area you’re from; what geographic you’re from – it’s a welcoming party and all will be represented by the PDP.”

Candidate for Signal Hill/ Patience Hill Nigel Taitt shared similar sentiments. As he completed his nomination, Taitt expressed confidence.

“I’m feeling great.”

He said he is ready to follow in the footsteps of the PDP top brass.

“I have been listening to the messages of (PDP deputy) Farley (Augustine), (PDP leader) Mr (Watson) Duke and (deputy leader) Dr Faith (BYisrael) and what they’ve been talking – I want to be part of that. I need to be a part of that, so I have put myself to be part of it.”

He said he likes his chances based on the response he has been getting on the ground.”

He said the area has many shortcoming as he expressed his willingness to work with his team to have them addressed.

“There are so many issues to be addressed at this point in time. I am living there – drainage, roads, and we’re at a critical point now where the playing fields need to be re-configurated and we need lighting systems on the ground in Patience Hill.

"We’ve been promised that for so long and to date we haven’t received anything – over 20 years and nothing. I’ve been fighting for a long time to get these things addressed and up to now nothing.”

Bethel/ New Grange Terrance Baynes said having completed the nomination process, “now we’re ready to get to this next leg of this journey – I am excited about what is up next ahead.”

He said: “We have to be as succinct as we possibility can be with our message and hoping that the message resonates with everybody. So far it’s been a good run for us but of course there is still much work to do.

"I am not satisfied with the enthusiasm that people should have as it relates to voting in general so I am making an effort to push to try and see how we can get more people involved in the voting process – I think that is one of the things that concerns me.”

He said though it is a little easier to campaign with the smaller districts, the message must have the same impact.

“We have those that are enthused about the process and those who are not so enthused – we’re meeting a lot of persons who did not vote at all in the last time and have expressed the desire to get involved this time, so hopefully that would carry up the voting numbers, which is something that all of us want to see.

"We really want to see more people involved in this process so that they can have a larger stake in what happens in the Tobago space.”