Po­lit­i­cal Leader of the Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP) Wat­son Duke be­lieves lo­cal gov­ern­ment isn’t just his po­lit­i­cal des­tiny, but the on­ly way to tru­ly serve the peo­ple.

On Eman­ci­pa­tion night at The Ho­tel Nor­mandie in St Ann’s, he told the crowd his po­lit­i­cal ca­reer had been one of time and chance, and now he need­ed to fo­cus on rev­o­lu­tion­is­ing lo­cal gov­er­nance in Trinidad.

Join­ing Duke on his jour­ney is a mixed slate of po­lit­i­cal neo­phytes and those who have ex­ist­ed on the fringes for some time.

The lat­ter in­cludes Fuad Abu Bakr, of the New Na­tion­al Vi­sion (NNV). Abu Bakr, in his ad­dress, called on vot­ers to set their pol­i­tics free.

Bakr is con­test­ing Bel­mont North and West dis­trict for the PDP. Of his NNV he told Guardian Me­dia Ltd via What­sApp that it “is still func­tion­al and will be in­volved in fu­ture elec­tions”.

He added, “We don’t have a cultish view of a po­lit­i­cal par­ty. I be­lieve in a new na­tion­al vi­sion. Where we are that is our phi­los­o­phy and that has been com­mu­ni­cat­ed with the Po­lit­i­cal Leader of the PDP who cor­re­sponds with a peo­ple be­fore pol­i­tics mantra. A po­lit­i­cal par­ty is a mech­a­nism to car­ry the in­di­vid­u­als who come to­geth­er for a po­lit­i­cal pur­pose.”

As for Duke, he said he un­der­stands why peo­ple doubt the clar­i­ty of his vi­sion, but said any­one track­ing his ca­reer would un­der­stand the role of time and chance in his jour­ney.

He said when he formed the PDP in 2016, peo­ple thought he was crazy, but then his par­ty swept the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly elec­tions in De­cem­ber 2021.

He in­tends to do the same in Trinidad, and claims he will be­come the next may­or of Port-of-Spain.

“Folks, do not un­der­es­ti­mate the PDP,” Duke said.

Throw­ing aim at the struc­ture of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment, the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress and the Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance, Duke said their mem­bers are be­hold­en to their po­lit­i­cal lead­ers, and not the peo­ple.

Us­ing ac­cess to wa­ter as an ex­am­ple, Duke said, “You call your coun­cil­lor. Your coun­cil­lor ought to be go­ing round with a mic and say to the peo­ple, ‘WASA is fix­ing a main and you will be out for a few days, but we will sup­ply you with wa­ter.’ That’s the coun­cil­lor!”

The Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots is putting up a full slate for Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions on Au­gust 14.