Dennis sorry for PNM straying from its principles

New PNM Tobago Council political leader Ancil Dennis said his party had strayed from its principles.

Dennis was officially named PNM leader after the party's internal elections on April 24.

On the Tobago Updates morning show on Tuesday, Dennis said, “I want to take this opportunity to say sorry to the people of Tobago, not just the party membership but to the people of Tobago for some of the things that were done, for some of the things that were said, for the ways in which we operate which were completely unbecoming of the principles upon which the PNM stands.”

The Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) crushed the PNM 14-1 victory in the THA elections on December 6, 2021.

Dennis said one of the first things for him in going forward is treating with the division within his party.

“Of course, some persons were offended, not only PNM members but Tobagonians generally felt offended by the manner in which we operated in some cases. It is something that we cannot escape, a lot of it made its way into the public domain.”

In terms of what will be done differently this time, he said for the first few months, the new PNM executive will focus on three pillars – people, development and consultation.

Consultation, he said, requires the executive to go back and talk not only to the membership but to the people of Tobago.

“One of the things I propose to do differently is whereby we have grown accustomed to the manifesto approach where a few months before the election the party would come and do this manifesto, I am going to take the party into a direction of doing a platform which is going to be a long-term development document. A 25-year development plan that the PNM would be proposing to the people of Tobago for the development period 2025-2050.”

He said this requires tremendous consultation.

“We are going to go back and talk to our membership, we are going to talk to the people of Tobago,, get a sense as to what they consider the issues and of course in some cases we know – but I think there is still a requirement to go back and talk to the people and develop a comprehensive platform that the party would be selling to the people of Tobago by the time we get to the next election.”