THE dust has settled on the April 28 general election with the UNC-led coalition winning 26 seats while the PNM got 13 and the newcomer Tobago People’s Party (TPP), two.
The TPP’s success in securing the two Tobago seats, in its first general election, raises questions about the role, if any, the party is likely to play in the new Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration.
Will the party join the UNC or will it seek an accommodation with the government to advance Tobago’s development on the issues for which it has been advocating?
Speaking to reporters after the swearing-in ceremony for Persad-Bissessar and new Attorney General John Jeremie on May 1 at President’s House, St Ann’s, TPP political leader Farley Augustine held his cards close to his chest.
Asked if the party was willing to join the UNC, Augustine said, “That is not a conversation that we have had. It is not something I am contemplating at this point. For that to be a consideration, I will first need my political party to make that sort of decision and we have not had that conversation.”
The TPP’s only hint of a possible accommodation between the two parties came when it announced, in a post on its Facebook page on May 2, that a ‘Thank You’ motorcade would not be held on the island this weekend “due to the engagements of both the political leader and the MPs for Tobago East (David Thomas) and West (Joel Sampson) in Trinidad this weekend. It will be postponed until further notice.”
The post alluded to the swearing-in ceremony for members of the new Cabinet and government at President’s House on May 3.
After the TPP’s victory on April 28, Augustine had told supporters in Scarborough the party’s focus was not so much on being in the Cabinet but in the Parliament “to advocate and say the right things and negotiate on behalf of the people of Tobago. And I believe we have an extremely strong negotiating point starting tomorrow (April 29) morning.”
Commenting on the matter, political scientist Dr Bishnu Ragoonath believes the TPP and UNC have already “sealed a deal in a way as they move forward.”
He continued, “I don’t know what the details of the deal are but I think they have already agreed that they will be working together.
“Maybe they have determined what exactly they have agreed on, I don’t know. But it is a foregone conclusion that they have already joined. Now it is a matter of what does the deal entail for the country.”
During the election campaign, former prime minister Dr Keith Rowley and other PNM officials claimed the TPP was planning to join forces with the UNC to get greater autonomy for Tobago if the latter won the general election.
Now that the party has won the general election, Ragoonath wondered if an agreement would be reached between the two parties regarding the way forward for autonomy.
[caption id="attachment_1147279" align="alignnone" width="900"] Political scientist Dr Bishnu Ragoonath -[/caption]
But he contends that Augustine has never made clear what autonomy for Tobago would look like.
“Probably, the T
