Camille McEach­nie

To­ba­go-born math­e­mat­i­cal econ­o­mist and an­a­lyst Dr Vanus James mount­ed the Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP) plat­form on Mon­day night at the par­ty’s dri­ve-in cam­paign meet­ing in Black Rock.

Dr James said he had been on the po­lit­i­cal fence but a re­cent in­ci­dent changed his mind.

He al­leged that a To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) Works Di­vi­sion em­ploy­ee, who had sup­port­ed the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), was threat­ened with dis­missal be­cause she showed sup­port for the PDP. The PNM said it was un­aware of the mat­ter.

“I have been warn­ing To­bag­o­ni­ans for years...that when all of us are work­ing in the THA, that is a threat to your po­lit­i­cal free­dom,” Dr James told the crowd.

Ac­cord­ing to THA sta­tis­tics, more than two-thirds of the work­ing pop­u­la­tion are em­ployed with the THA.

Dr James, who was a se­nior pol­i­cy ad­vi­sor at the Unit­ed Na­tions De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme, said To­bag­o­ni­ans should not al­low the rul­ing par­ty to “threat­en...and scare” them from po­lit­i­cal dis­cus­sions.

The for­mer co­or­di­na­tor of Ja­maica’s Pol­i­cy De­vel­op­ment Unit and found­ing di­rec­tor of this coun­try’s Pol­i­cy Re­search and De­vel­op­ment In­sti­tute said peo­ple should be free to vote for whom they choose.

“You see this busi­ness of threat­en­ing you with your vote and telling you who to vote for, that is a threat to our rights and our democ­ra­cy in this To­ba­go here. We can’t af­ford that,” Dr James said to loud ap­plause.

Guardian Me­dia reached out to the PNM’s To­ba­go Coun­cil Pub­lic Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer (PRO) and Sec­re­tary of the Di­vi­sion of In­fra­struc­ture Kwe­si Des Vi­gnes for com­ment on Dr Vanus’ al­le­ga­tions.

The Works Di­vi­sion, where the in­ci­dent al­leged­ly took place, falls un­der Des Vi­gnes’ con­trol.

The PNM’s PRO said an in­ves­ti­ga­tion will be done if Dr James pro­vides the in­for­ma­tion.

“ I en­cour­age Dr James to come for­ward with any in­for­ma­tion or ev­i­dence he has to sub­stan­ti­ate his claims. Rest as­sured, a full in­ves­ti­ga­tion will be done in­to the mat­ter once the in­for­ma­tion is forth­com­ing,” Des Vi­gnes told Guardian Me­dia.