Senior Reporter
dareece.polo@guardian.co.tt
Less than a month after a startling defeat in the Local Government Elections, Watson Duke’s Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) has moved out of its Barataria headquarters.
The PDP office was opened with pomp and flair on April 10, 2022. Soca artistes, tassa players, blue devils, and moko jumbies were part of the entertainment as supporters lined the streets then. Delivering the feature address, Duke had said the opening marked the beginning of a political revolution for his Tobago-based party in Trinidad.
When Guardian Media visited the office yesterday, evidence of Duke’s party were stripped from the building. Contacted for comment, the PDP leader denied allegations he was evicted from the building. Instead, he said the party is trying to reduce operational costs.
“We have not been evicted, we have simply downsized. The PDP has fulfiled its main mandate in Trinidad, which is to develop a cadre of persons that will support our mandate. In so far as the move, we continue to be in Trinidad and we continue to be in Tobago,” he said.
Duke did not disclose where the new office will be located, though he said it will be in Port-of-Spain. He revealed, however, that it would not be as easily identifiable.
Moreover, he assured the population that this was not a retreat, as he intends to contest general elections in 2025 on both islands.
“We intend to contest one or two seats down there (Trinidad) based on our own polling. Tobago, the national elections are very critical to the outcome of governance in Trinidad and so the focus is on Tobago, where we would have already proven our strength,” he said.
Duke’s PDP beat the People’s National Movement (PNM) 14-1 in Tobago House of Assembly (THA) polls on December 6, 2021. However, 15 members of the assembly, including Chief Secretary Farley Augustine, resigned from the PDP on December 5, 2022.
Duke is now the lone PDP member in the THA, as Augustine and the other THA execs formed the Tobago People’s Party on August 14, 2023.