THA elections January 17

THE Tobago House of Assembly (THA) elections will be held on January 17, 2005.  The announcement was made by Prime Minister Patrick Manning during yesterday’s sitting of the House of Representatives. However in the wake of the Prime Minister’s announcement, the NAR’s Tobago arm appears to have rejected the idea of the UNC becoming part of a possible political alliance to fight the ruling PNM in those polls. Speaking with Newsday during the tea break in the Lower House, Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday said the UNC has not made a decision about contesting the THA polls. However Panday said: “Now that the date has been announced, we shall be forced to do so (take a decision about contesting the elections).”

However NAR Tobago leader Cecil Caruth said talk of the UNC’s involvement in the THA elections was just “a red herring.” Caruth observed that it was the UNC’s involvement in the 2001 THA elections which caused the NAR to lose those elections to the PNM. He said the UNC cost the NAR crucial votes in several electoral districts in 2001 and has not been invited to form an alliance with the party for the 2005 polls. Caruth believed that the NAR would have won at least five of the Assembly’s 12 seats if the UNC had remained out of the 2001 THA elections. Caruth however did not rule out the possibility of an alliance with Hochoy Charles’ Democratic Action Congress (DAC), indicating that the NAR has until December 23 to announce its slate of candidates.

The NAR Tobago leader identified self-sufficiency for Tobago and equity in the relations with Trinidad as two major issues which the sister isle’s electorate will have to decide on. Caruth said development in Tobago was focused more in the south-western part of the island and this imbalance needed to be addressed. He also said Tobago had no industry which it could claim as its own and tourism did not fit such a description. Caruth was uncertain what effect the Landate affair would have on the PNM’s chances to retain control of the THA, but he was sure that it would be raised on the hustings “in some form or fashion.”

He declined to give any opinion on Landate, noting that it was now the subject of a Commission of Inquiry but said the NAR was ready for the elections. NAR political leader Lennox Sankersingh shared Caruth’s optimism and said a schedule of public meetings in Tobago was now being worked out. On the issue of a political alliance, Sankersingh said talks were still ongoing with other groups in the sister isle. THA Chief Secretary Orville London previously said Landate would not be an issue in the elections and expressed confidence that the PNM would be victorious.