Hochoy writes Prez over PNM election conduct

Leader of the Democratic Action Congress (DAC), Hochoy Charles, has written to President George Maxwell Richards requesting the appointment of a Commission of Inquiry into the conduct of the 2005 Tobago House of Assembly (THA) elections on January 17. The DAC has alleged that coercive tactics and State funds were used by the People’s National Movement (PNM) to secure its victory. The PNM won 11 seats while the DAC only won one—Providence/ Mason Hall/Moriah. Speaking to the media at President’s House after being sworn in as a councillor in the THA, Charles said his party’s queries about the election, “would not die a natural death.” He said the next step would be mobilising the country, then the DAC “would take it further.” This action, he said, included notifying the United Nations. 

In the January 26 letter to President Richards, the DAC leader notified Richards about “certain illegal practices and actions of the People’s National Movement during the period leading up to the 2005 elections.” Charles alleged that Prime Minister Patrick Manning and some PNM candidates “implied that if Tobagonians did not vote for the PNM, Tobago would experience difficulty obtaining funds from central Government.” He also claimed that PNM activists personally handed out and delivered poll cards to electors with threats to senior citizens that if they did not vote PNM, their pensions would be stopped. “Various threats and promises were also made and modified to meet the perceived level of intelligence and occupation of some persons,” Charles said.