TPP to reveal THA election candidates next week

Chief Secretary and TPP leader Farley Augustine. -

TOBAGO People’s Party (TPP) political leader Farley Augustine says the party will announce its full slate of candidates for the THA election by next week.

Augustine, the Chief Secretary, dissolved the THA on November 12 during his contribution on a motion to adopt the Report of the House Committee of the 12th Session of the THA in the Assembly Legislature, Scarborough.

This clears the way for the election which must be held between January 12 and February 12.

Speaking to reporters on November 13 after the prize-giving ceremony for the Chief Secretary’s Secondary School’s Art and Film competition at the Shaw Park Cultural Complex, Augustine expressed confidence in the TPP returning to lead the assembly.

“We are confident we will perform as well as we did in the last election. We are going into this election now having 13 seats and we are confident we will be able to retain those and add to the 13,” he said.

Pressed to reveal a specific time frame for the election, Augustine would only say, “It will be between two to three months from yesterday. The law says I have to advise the prime minister and the President. I have not given such advisement as yet. I am still sleeping on it, thinking about it, praying about it. But certainly, in due course, the President will be advised of a date and that will be announced to the public.”

Augustine, who is again the sole nominee for the Parlatuvier/Speyside/L’Anse Fourmi electoral district, said the majority of the party’s screening exercise takes place on November 16 at the Shaw Park Complex.

He scoffed at the PNM’s campaign slogan of getting Tobagonians back into its fold.

Augustine said, “Ashworth Jack and the TOP (Tobago Organisation of the People) are asking back for their slogan! They (the PNM) used Tobago first in 2013, when they lost all 12 seats. Maybe that’s deja vu for the PNM. So let’s see how that works out for them.

He said the TPP’s campaign will be based on its achievements and the development pathway for Tobago that it has conceptualised.

“That development pathway is from this year, 2025, all the way to 2040, and we will be putting Tobago on a trajectory that will lead to stronger socio-economic growth.”

In this regard, Augustine said the export licence for Studley Park Ltd, which the THA got from the government on November 4, can be used as collateral to upgrade its equipment.

“The beauty of the export licence is that it can be used as collateral to get the necessary financing to upgrade and increase the level and number of equipment at Studley Park so we can ramp up production levels.

“We do have more than sufficient material there in the ground, so what Studley Park is doing at this moment is using that export licence essentially as collateral going to the financial institutions, increasing and improving the equipment so that the production capacity will be beyond what we have right now.”