NAR, DAC join for THA election?

THE NAR hopes to form an electoral accommodation with its breakaway faction, the DAC, to fight PNM control of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) in next month’s election. So said NAR chairman, Rawle Raphael, yesterday at a media conference following a NAR National Council meeting at the party’s Victoria Square headquarters. Contact had been made between NAR Tobago leader, Cecil Caruth, and DAC leader, Hochoy Charles, ahead of the January 17 poll.  Raphael said: “We continue to hold talks with the DAC hoping that some agreement can be agreed (upon).”

Pressed as to how realistic a merger was, given the acrimony of the recent exit of Charles from the NAR, Raphael replied that the effort was being supported by NAR leader Lennox Sankersingh. “The political leader is in Tobago right now trying to secure it in the least possible time.” He added that although time was short, it was better to create a NAR-DAC electoral accommodation than for the two parties to split votes and let the ruling PNM win the THA elections. Karim Ibrahim, who chairs a body of NAR constituency groups stretching from Laventille to Arouca, appealed to Charles to join efforts with the NAR.