THE stage is being set for an epic battle for the two Tobago seats in the April 28 general election.
Several political leaders have signalled their intention to contest the Tobago East and West seats, which the People’s National Movement (PNM) has controlled for the past ten years.
Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) political leader Watson Duke, assemblyman for Belle Garden East/Roxborough/Delaford, will contest the Tobago East seat, currently held by the PNM’s Ayanna Webster-Roy. He is expected to announce the candidate for Tobago West on March 24.
This will be his third attempt to wrest control of the seat.
Duke first ran for the seat in 2015 as an independent before he formed the PDP, then again in 2020 under the party’s banner.
He said he got the people’s support.
“There is no speculation, there is no shade of grey on that area. The people within the PDP party and the villagers of Roxborough, they have requested that I run for Tobago East and I have consented, so I am going to run for the Tobago East seat,” he said.
Duke said Tobago is crying out for a change in representation.
“I have respect for both Shamfa (Cudjoe-Lewis) and Ayanna, they are both good candidates but like all things their seasons have passed and we are beyond that. We are looking for fighters to go to Trinidad, not just persons who would just contribute a vote to anything. Tobago must stand out and Tobago must be represented as an idol with its own history and its own vision of its future.”
On the Tobago West candidate, Duke said, “The person I am choosing, that person is a fighter, a public fighter. That person is a no-nonsense person and I would say that we would be going to Trinidad as the finest fighters Tobago could have possibly engaged.”
He added: “We come all inclusive. What I miss he would capture, what he misses I would capture, so it’s really a nice duo and a nice tag team.”
Duke believes the PDP will win the two Tobago seats.
“We expect a clean sweep so to speak, not being cocky about it but we expect that to resonate with the Tobago-ness inside of all of us as Tobagonians.”
Patriotic Front leader Mickela Panday has already announced Aretha Clarke as the party’s candidate for Tobago West and the Tobago East candidate will be revealed in due course.
She said so far, 14 candidates have been confirmed and the party’s full slate of 41 candidates will be announced “sometime soon.”
“We have 35 days. So I could say in the near future would be very precise, sometime soon,” Panday told Newsday in a brief phone interview on March 20.
Panday, daughter of late prime minister and UNC founder Basdeo Panday, said her campaign is being fought “on the ground.”
On March 17, after Stuart Young was sworn in as Prime Minister, Panday and members of her team held a walkabout in Sea Lots. A video of the walkabout was posted on social media.
She said, “We have to be on the ground. There is nothing else. We have been on the ground or some time now and we will just continue that. We just have to meet people and speak w
