THA chief sec: 8 nominees for TPP screening

TOBAGO People’s Party (TPP) political leader Farley Augustine has revealed that eight nominees have offered themselves as potential candidates to contest the Tobago East and West constituencies in the general election.

On the Tobago Updates morning show on January 31, Augustine confirmed that Secretary of Infrastructure, Quarries and Urban Development Trevor James and retired public servant Barry Nelson are the only two nominees that have come forward seeking to represent Tobago West.

He said the nominees for Tobago East are TPP chairman Ann Natasha Second; retired Assistant Commissioner of Police William Nurse; retired deputy chief fire officer David Thomas; former THA assemblyman Max James; technical adviser, Division of Finance, Trade and the Economy Anslem Richards; and veteran tour guide William Trim.

Augustine, assemblyman for Parlatuvier/L’Anse Fourmi/Speyside, said the screening of nominees takes place on February 4 and 5.

“Our process is that the actions groups will send to me, as political leader and chair of the screening committee, their thoughts, they will rank the nominees.

“So in other words they will determine their preference. So we will go into the screening knowing who the actions groups like and don’t like,” he said.

Augustine, who is also the THA Chief Secretary, said the screening committee can reject one or all of the nominees.

“Action groups can send a clear signal that ‘we eh like none of them people here that were nominated,’ in which case, as political leader, I will be left with no choice but to send back out for more nominations.

So it is not a given that because you were duly nominated that you or one of those nominated will become the candidate.”

He expects to get that information from the mobilisation officer by February 2.

“But I am confident that whoever we send will be victorious, that Tobago will send two TPP candidates as their MPs because what we want are MPs who will go to Port of Spain and fight for Tobago.”

Augustine continued, “We can’t have MPs in Port of Spain and moreso, MPs in a Cabinet and Caribbean Airlines still has not returned to full service as they had in pre-covid days when you could have gotten a flight from Tobago after one in the morning, where you could have got a flight from Piarco after 12 in the morning .

“We can’t have MPs in the Cabinet and Caribbean Airlines, that is being managed by the Cabinet, can’t be directed so to do.

“We can’t have MPs in the Parliament and consideration is not given to how Tobago and the THA can monetise its blue assets, its marine space and that is sort of swept aside.

“We can’t MPs in the Parliament that say ‘I know Tobago sent this down to the Parliament but we agree with Trinidadians to give you what we say you must get as your autonomy.”

He said Tobago needs MPs that will stand up for its citizens.

“We need MPs that when they stand in the Parliament they know that it is Tobago that they are representing and that what Tobagonians say they want, that is what they are there to advocate for, not what they feel Tobago should get.”

The Tobago East and West seats are currently held by the PNM's Ayanna Webster-Roy and Shamfa Cudjoe-Lewis, respectively.

Augustine said there must be “a respect for the democracy on the island and the people who put us there.

“And I am confident that whoever we send, that the screening committee selects, that they will be victorious in the upcoming election for both Tobago East and West.”

Describing the TPP as a truly indigenous, Augustine also said the party will not join forces with any other political entity to contest the general election.

“The TPP has very strong and I would admit, sometimes offensive pro-Tobago position, but we are unapologetic about that. And so going into this general election, that’s what we are going with. We are not going as a partner to anybody. We are going at it alone because we believe we have a far better chance, a far better negotiating position on our own.”