Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine says there will be no ear­ly elec­tion for the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly un­less his team agrees and sup­ports it.

He ex­plained that un­like the cen­tral gov­ern­ment, the THA has a fixed term and can­not just call a snap elec­tion with­out go­ing through a le­gal process.

“The truth is, un­like the cen­tral gov­ern­ment, the Chief Sec­re­tary can­not just call an elec­tion,” Au­gus­tine said.

He said the law gives the As­sem­bly a set time­frame. The term ends au­to­mat­i­cal­ly four years af­ter the last elec­tion. Af­ter that, the elec­tion must be called with­in a set pe­ri­od.

“The To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly has a prac­ti­cal, a fixed term lim­it. So the House dis­solves for it­self on the fourth an­niver­sary, and then you have the statu­to­ry time pe­ri­od in which you could call the elec­tion.”

Au­gus­tine made the state­ment fol­low­ing the swear­ing-in of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and AG John Je­re­mie. 

He was asked whether the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP), fresh off its vic­to­ry in the na­tion­al gen­er­al elec­tion, would con­sid­er call­ing a snap elec­tion in the as­sem­bly to cap­i­talise on the mo­men­tum.

Au­gus­tine said that could on­ly hap­pen if the mem­bers of the THA agree.

“If I am to have a snap elec­tion, I would have to go to the House, have it de­bat­ed, and have the mem­bers of the House agree to a snap elec­tion,” he said.

He said this sys­tem cre­ates more sta­bil­i­ty and re­moves the pow­er from one in­di­vid­ual to use an elec­tion date as po­lit­i­cal lever­age.

“So for­tu­nate­ly, I can't just have a date in my back pock­et, and I think that's the way ad­vanced democ­ra­cies ought to go, so that there is greater pre­dictabil­i­ty where elec­tions are con­cerned, be­cause elec­tions can, in fact, have im­pacts on economies, as op­posed to some one man or woman hav­ing a date in their back pock­et and hold­ing it as a weapon or an ad­van­tage.”

Au­gus­tine said that if his team wants to go to the polls ear­ly, he will re­spect that view.

“Cer­tain­ly, if the ma­jor­i­ty of my team mem­bers feel that we should go ear­li­er than nor­mal, that is some­thing I will fol­low suit, be­cause I will need to lead with their per­mis­sion,” he said.

But he stressed that for now, no such de­ci­sion has been made.

“Gen­er­al­ly speak­ing, I can't just de­ter­mine that we have a snap elec­tion, be­cause we have a fixed ap­proach to get­ting to the elec­tion,” he said.

The last THA elec­tion was held on De­cem­ber 6, 2021. That means the next one is due no lat­er than ear­ly 2026.

Un­der the THA Act, once the as­sem­bly reach­es its fourth an­niver­sary, it au­to­mat­i­cal­ly dis­solves, and elec­tions must be held with­in the statu­to­ry time.