FARLEY Augustine, 39, is the other major winner of the April 28 general election.
The TPP’s victory represents the first time in 15 years that a party has unseated the PNM in Tobago. It is an accomplishment that at once confirms the enduring bond the Chief Secretary has developed with voters on the island while placing him in a unique position to impact the national scene even more.
Not since the days of ANR Robinson has this happened.
The TPP’s clean sweep of both Tobago East and Tobago West may have been surprising. But it was nonetheless foretold.
Tobago House of Assembly elections are separate from national polls. Yet, they serve as barometers by which support for Mr Augustine might be tracked. The trend has been in one direction. In the days when he was campaigning for votes under Watson Duke’s PDP, that entity moved from winning two assembly seats in 2017 to winning six, then 14 in the elections of 2021.
Mr Augustine later split from Mr Duke, but it is the former who retains political momentum, judging from the latter’s dismal performance on election night. Mr Augustine’s TPP is ascendant. It is the TPP that won the seats that the PDP failed to win in the 2020 general election.
The TPP leader is in a position to extend his reach even further.
Unlike Ashworth Jack’s TOP, Mr Augustine’s party will not initially be fettered by the need to prop up the administration of Kamla Persad-Bissessar, whose UNC has an outright majority. Though denied the leverage of being the decisive votes in a tight parliament, TPP MPs will be able to speak freely, loudly and independently of Tobago’s needs.
The situation is closer to what occurred in 1976 and 1981 when Mr Robinson’s DAC held two seats. Those years were, famously, precursors to the formation of the NAR, which in 1986 swept politics on a national level.
It remains open for the TPP and the UNC to have conversations about co-operation. But because it is not essential to either party, it is possible, if not likely, that specific policy issues will dictate the approach.
A bellwether of how the 13th Parliament will operate could come in a few weeks’ time in the form of a mid-year budget review. Already, TPP officials have called for an increase in Tobago’s budget share.
With the UNC poised to hold a constitutional majority, the long-standing issue of Tobago autonomy legislation may return.
While Mr Augustine will not sit in Parliament, another THA election is also due. His actions and the actions of David Thomas and Joel Sampson will be vital to his party’s prospects in that poll and beyond. Tobago has great expectations.
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