It may be early days yet and even with fighting taking place in certain Trinidad political quarters, the campaign is also clearly on for the Tobago House of Assembly election. Way down in Penal Junction at last week Wednesday's UNC election campaign meeting, far-off Tobago and its upcoming THA elections were still uppermost in some minds.
That night, UNC deputy political leader Roodal Moonilal, noting the THA poll lay ahead, referred to projects for Tobago. "We need a strong (UNC) executive to give support to (TOP leader) Ashworth Jack in Tobago. The Nationalists' slate will support him to beat the PNM for the THA elections!" Moonilal told the Penal crowd.
Further highlighting interest in the contest is the fact that last week the Government issued a Green Paper on internal self-government for Tobago. The election, expected to be based heavily on that campaign factor, is likely to be a four-way fight with all the implications of such a split.
"Tight," is how People's National Movement Tobago West co-ordinator Stanford Callendar projects it will be. The PNM and the minority Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) will also face election competition from former THA chairman Hochoy Charles' latest political vehicle, the Platform for Truth, and a new party headed by longstanding Tobagonian politician Deborah Moore-Miggins. Her party's name is yet to be registered.
Among the 12 THA seats, the PNM controls five in western Tobago and three in eastern Tobago, including the seat held by Tobago PNM leader Orville London, The TOP holds four, including one in western Tobago and three in east Tobago, among them that of Ashworth Jack.
The four political entities also have some similarities beyond their Tobago roots which will figure as factors in the poll. Both the PNM (Tobago) and TOP are part of national political entities. However Charles' and Moore-Miggins' respective groups are independent, all-Tobago entities without Trinidad ties.
The man who will have to select a date-THA Chief Secretary Orville London-wasn't giving any hints when the T&T Guardian visited him last week. The THA's term ends in January 2013 and the THA, under law, has a maximum of two months after the THA is dissolved to hold an election.
Asked about an election around or before Carnival 2013, London, with a laugh, said, "Elections have been held at Carnival time too, you know." London has reason to be coy about the date. It will not be a run-of-the-mill election and his Tobago PNM, which lost four seats in the last THA poll-while the PNM was in government-will need all the advantages it can muster now that the PNM is now in Opposition.
The upcoming election could hold implications not only for London's PNM but also for the political stocks of his party leader of 23 months, Tobago-born Keith Rowley And it may also test the political credibility of Jack's Tobago TOP and by extension, the coalition Government to which TOP is linked.
The PNM is therefore expected to employ rearguard action to maintain its position against the inroads made by the TOP on the basis of PP successes (or failures). Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar's visit to the island last year previewed some of the action that might arise when she locked horns with the THA over CEPEP issues which London has deemed a "clear PP political tool."
Nor was the PNM-controlled THA particularly happy with her news that she would establish an office of her ministry in Tobago. "It's not illegal, but it's unnecessary," says London. "There's a difference between interfacing and interference and I'm concerned about the latter. Both the Panday administration and the PNM had ministers for Tobago affairs in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM). This showed they recognised Tobago's autonomy and there was no control or overlap."
The CEPEP issue has cooled somewhat, and Housing Minister Roodal Moonilal last week confirmed that CEPEP funding has been sent to the THA. Contacted on the establishment of an OPM in the sister island, neither Tobago Development Minister Vernella Alleyne-Toppin's adviser (to whom Toppin handed her cell phone when she was contacted) nor TOP leader Ashworth Jack had any idea when it would be set up.
A spokesman at the OPM in Trinidad eventually said on Monday that the Tobago OPM division might not get going until after the 2013 budget, since building locations were still being examined.
Constitutional reform to figure in THA battle
Despite the stagnant Tobago tourism economy-hit by global recession-the fight for the THA is more likely to be based on how Tobagonians view proposals for constitutional reform from the competing sides. There were hints last week from the TOP and Government that Green Paper proposals on this may be concretised by the second half of the year-in time for the 2013 budget.
Towards this end, Attorney General Anand Ramlogan, issuing the Green Paper for public comment, last week gave a June 29 deadline for feedback on it. Meetings to discuss the paper will be held over the next three months until the deadline. Ramlogan said Government had committed to "give the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) executive and legislative authority for matters under the THA Act and other matters incidental thereto."
He described the contents-put together by Reginald Dumas and prepared by the Law Reform Commission-as a "profound change" to T&T's Constitution. Ramlogan said once all comments have been received, Government proposes to publish a White Paper containing its policy on internal self-government for Tobago and draft legislation to implement that policy.