TPP snatches 60% of votes in THA elections

FARLEY AUGUSTINE, head the Tobago People's Party (TPP), snatched 60 per cent of votes cast island-wide in the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) elections on January 12. The TPP made a clear sweep, winning all 15 seats on offer and displacing the sole PNM member Kelvon Morris from his Darrel Spring/Whim seat by just 17 votes.

The Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) in a statement on January 13 said the TPP had won 16,240 votes, ahead of the PNM's 10,456 votes.

Newsday calculated the TPP tally to be 60.8 per cent of valid votes cast.

The TPP's 60.8 per cent share of votes cast is an even further improvement on its 55 per cent tally in the 2025 general election which saw it win Tobago East and Tobago West. It is also an improvement on the 58 per cent earned by Watson Duke's Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) in the December 2021 THA elections under which Augustine became THA chief secretary when the PDP took 14 seats to the PNM's one, after the January 2021 six-six deadlocked election. Augustine subsequently left the PDP to form the TPP.

However, the EBC statement also had somewhat of a sting in the tail for Augustine and a glimmer of hope for the deflated Tobago PNM.

The EBC said the voter turnout was just 50.69 per cent of the 53,239-strong electorate.

This was the lowest voter turnout since 2017. This 50.69 per cent turnout lags the record high of a 56.97 per cent turnout in the December 2021 THA elections.

The voter turnouts shown in EBC reports were 49.7 per cent (2017 THA poll), 51.85 per cent (January 2021 THA poll), 56.97 per cent (December 2021 THA poll), 50.90 per cent (calculated by Newsday for Tobago for the 2025 general election) and now 50.69 per cent.

Meanwhile the statement listed the tallies for the other parties, being 181 votes for the Innovative Democratic Alliance (IDA), led by Dr Denise Tsoiafatt Angus, and eight for the Unity of the People (UTP), which ran just one candidate in the person of leader Nickocy Phillips.

Saying these were preliminary results, the EBC said the PNM has requested recounts in Darrel Spring/Whim and Scarborough/Mt Grace.

Recounts were due to start at 3 pm on December 13, the EBC said.