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Saturday, July 5, 2025

Former PNM MPs Shamfa, Ayanna thank Tobago 

by

Elizabeth Gonzales
65 days ago
20250430

De­feat­ed To­ba­go MPs Sham­fa Cud­joe-Lewis and Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy have thanked To­ba­go fol­low­ing the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty’s his­toric sweep in Mon­day’s Gen­er­al Elec­tion, of­fer­ing emo­tion­al mes­sages of grat­i­tude and re­flec­tion.

“While we did not achieve the vic­to­ry we had hoped for, my heart is full of grat­i­tude for your sup­port,” Cud­joe-Lewis said in a writ­ten mes­sage to To­ba­go West vot­ers. “Full of com­mit­ment to our coun­try, full of hope for a brighter fu­ture, and full of love for every sin­gle con­stituent.”

Cud­joe-Lewis, who served as To­ba­go West’s MP since 2015, was un­seat­ed by TPP new­com­er Joel Samp­son. Samp­son won 4,951 votes to her 4,935 — a nar­row mar­gin of just 16 votes.

Cud­joe-Lewis thanked con­stituents for wel­com­ing her in­to their homes and lives dur­ing her tenure.

“Your en­cour­age­ment, sup­port, and prayers have kept me through the years, and to­day we are all the bet­ter for the good­ness we have poured in­to each oth­er,” she wrote. “It is in­deed a priv­i­lege to have served and rep­re­sent­ed you. I re­main com­mit­ted to our holis­tic de­vel­op­ment, and I vow to al­ways be ‘Right There With You."

Over in To­ba­go East, long-time MP Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy al­so lost her seat to an­oth­er TPP new­com­er, David Thomas. He won with 4,473 votes, while Web­ster-Roy se­cured 2,858.

But like Cud­joe-Lewis, Web­ster-Roy re­mained gra­cious in de­feat.

“Un­changed by vic­to­ry, un­shak­en by de­feat,” she wrote in her state­ment. “I’ve al­ways been some­one who sees the big pic­ture — ground­ed in my faith and guid­ed by hope. Vic­to­ry has nev­er changed me, and nei­ther has de­feat.”

Web­ster-Roy served as the MP for To­ba­go East since 2015 and held sev­er­al min­is­te­r­i­al port­fo­lios in the PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion. In her state­ment, she de­scribed pub­lic ser­vice as one of the most dif­fi­cult paths a per­son can choose.

“It takes a brave heart to serve a peo­ple who may nev­er un­der­stand the weight of your sac­ri­fice — who may dis­re­spect, ridicule, and over­look you, even as you give your all for them,” she said. “I chose to car­ry that bur­den. And I did so with hu­mil­i­ty, dig­ni­ty, and un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to coun­try.”

She added that de­spite los­ing her seat, she re­mains proud of how she served.

“I have nev­er worn ad­ver­si­ty on my face. I face every chal­lenge with grace, hold­ing firm to my prin­ci­ples and my God. I choose joy. I choose peace. I choose to walk away the same way I walked in — true to my­self, my val­ues, and my faith.”

The TPP, led by Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine, now holds both To­ba­go seats in Par­lia­ment for the first time. The re­sults are seen as a ma­jor blow to the PNM, which had held both seats for over a decade.

Na­tion­al­ly, the UNC won 26 seats, form­ing the new gov­ern­ment. The PNM won 13, and the TPP se­cured two.


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