DUKE SPOILS PNM PARTY

However, the euphoria of four years ago when the party obliterated the Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) 12-0, was tempered yesterday as Watson Duke, leader of the fledgling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), spoiled Balisier celebrations by winning two of the 12 seats on offer, thereby ensuring an Opposition voice in the Assembly with Duke set to assume the role of Minority Leader.

School teacher Farley Chavez Augustine, a first-timer in the election race and one of the stand outs of the PDP’s campaign, won the Parlatuvier/L’Anse Fourmi/ Speyside electoral district, while Duke who proved to be a thorn in the side of his political opponents, won in his hometown Roxborough/ Delaford seat, which he was favoured to win in the latter part of the campaign. Augustine, whose seat was declared shortly after 9 pm, received 954 votes while the PNM’s Marissa Williams and Tobago Forwards candidate Sparkle Taylor each received 753 votes.

Duke secured 1,261 votes, dethroning the PNM’s Gary Melville who got 949 votes. Tobago Forwards candidate Anthony Price got 34 votes while the Movement For Transformation’s (MFT) candidate Kassie-Blackman-Hercules received 14 votes.

Both the Christlyn Moore-led Tobago Forwards and the MFT, headed by former PNM Tobago East MP Eudine Job-Davis, did not win any of the 12 seats although there were some close calls in some electoral districts.

Yesterday’s poll took place against the backdrop of an extremely low voter-turnout and allegations of irregularities in the voting process.

The latter has not been substantiated by the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) and the Tobago Division of the TT Police Service.

NEWSDAY SPOT ON More than 50,000 Tobagonians were eligible to vote yesterday but about 42 percent turned out to cast their ballot. The PNM’s victory validated a Newsday-commissioned poll conducted by HHB and Associates, which projected that the PNM would have won the election with PNM Tobago political leader Kelvin Charles being the best man to lead the THA. THA Chief Secretary- elect Charles won 1,050 votes to take the Black Rock/Whim/ Spring Garden seat, by a clear-cut margin.

The party’s other big winners included Ancil Dennis, who won the Buccoo/Mt Pleasant seat with 1291 votes, and Jomo Pitt (Lambeau/ Signal Hill) and Sheldon Cunningham (Providence/Speyside/Moriah), who got 1,183 and 1089 votes, respectively. At 10 pm, when many of the seats were declared, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and outgoing Chief Secretary Orville London danced alongside party officials and supporters at the PNM’s Tobago Council headquarters.

A visibly overwhelmed Charles, who quit his job as a THA Presiding Officer to contest the PNM’s Tobago Council leadership last July, also chatted and mingled with supporters. The Tobago Forwards, led by attorney and former justice minister Moore, did not win any of the 12 electoral district nor did the Eudine Job-Davis-led Movement for Transformation (MFT), which fielded just three candidates.

The Tobago Forwards is believed to have suffered a considerable decline in popularity, following Moore’s statements, during a live radio interview in Scarborough, last week, in which she claimed that the PNM were shuttling Trinidadians to Tobago to vote in the election.

Moore also advised hoteliers and small guest house operators to not feed these Trinis, treat them with scant courtesy and put visine in the water so that they would get diarrhoea and be forced return to Trinidad. (See Page 10A) In a brief address at the Tobago Forwards’ headquarters on Milford Road, Scarborough, she said she was glad that the PNM finally had some opposition in the THA.

Moore vowed to continue to work hard for the people of Tobago. In Roxborough, meanwhile, jubilation reigned as PDP supporters waved flags and danced through the streets to the music of the party’s signature campaign tune, “Rock and Come In.” ROWLEY: THANKS TOBAGO Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, who arrived at the PNM headquarters in the sister isle at 9 pm, mingled with outgoing Chief Secretary Orville London as they awaited the formal results. Speaking later before a small crowd of PNM supporters, Rowley welcomed Charles to the post of Chief Secretary. Rowley thanked Tobago for reposing its faith in the PNM for a fifth consecutive four-year term.

“I heard a popular reporter say that the mood (in the PNM camp) is sombre and I wondered what she was talking about. I discovered, the PNM as usual, is held to such high standards that when you win ten to two, some people will think that you lost. I am telling you tonight, I will take ten to two any day of the week! Rowley said that as Prime Minister and leader of the PNM he was “excited” to work with the new THA management team headed by Charles and called on all elected officials to work for the people and maintain their integrity now that they are in public office.

Earlier in the day, while London said he had no problem with the voting process, MFT leader Job-Davis complained about the low voter-turnout.

“The voting process has been slow and it seems as though people really are not coming out. The people indicated they are not going to vote because they are not inspired to do such,” she told reporters after casting her vote at the Moriah Community Centre.

Job-Davis said many Tobagonians had no trust in their leaders.

“They are saying that it is a case of same-old, same-old,” she said.

The former Tobago East MP said Tobago needs a new brand of politics. “We have gotten our message out there,” she said.

POLICE ESCORT FOR DUKE PDP political leader Watson Duke was escorted to the polling station at Roxborough Anglican Primary School to cast his vote.

Unlike the other three political leaders vying for the Chief Secretary position, Duke was the only person followed in and out of the polling station, out onto the main road.

Speaking after he cast his vote, Duke said “It was very efficient (voting process) and at least the State cared enough to allow two police to attend to me as I proceeded to exercise my duties. It was good, everything went smooth to my expectations.” Asked if the instruction from police to have him escorted surrounded his matters before the court, Duke said, “there’s no connection between that (five charges).

“The good police officers will exercise of their duties and respect for what I bring to the table they felt it best that I proceed to the pole with any interruptions or any form of untoward activity.” As to why he was stopped by officers from the Roxborough Police Station, Duke said he was uncertain of the reason.

“But certainly, they informed me that they were advised to accompany me. I have not been accustomed to that as I am a simple man and a man on the ground.

“Maybe this is a new protocol, maybe the writing is on the wall, maybe I have to ride off with them at midnight tonight at my home (Moriah).” Contacted for comment on why Duke had a police escort, head of Tobago Division, Ag Snr Supt Joanne Archie told Newsday no instruction was given to any police officer to escort him to and from the polling station. S he said the officers “innocently” walked along with Duke as he arrived and as he left.

(Additional reporting by Kinnesha George & Elizabeth Gonzales)