For­mer head of the To­ba­go Di­vi­sion of the Fire Ser­vice, David Joseph Thomas, says he is elat­ed and hum­bled af­ter be­ing se­lect­ed as the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) can­di­date for To­ba­go East for the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, he said he in­tends to hit the ground run­ning soon, adding that his track record of de­liv­er­ing will speak for it­self in his quest to se­cure the seat.

He said, “I’m hum­bled that I am pro­vid­ed with the op­por­tu­ni­ty to use all my skills to pos­i­tive­ly af­fect the peo­ple of To­ba­go. I’m cer­tain­ly go­ing to put my hands to the wheel and I am go­ing to make sure that con­fi­dence is de­liv­ered to the peo­ple as I ap­proach my new era to as­sist in the gov­er­nance of this twin is­land re­pub­lic.”

The TPP an­nounced Thomas’ se­lec­tion in a me­dia re­lease yes­ter­day morn­ing. The for­mer head of the To­ba­go Di­vi­sion Fire Ser­vice was a pop­u­lar choice among sup­port­ers, emerg­ing on top fol­low­ing a screen­ing process that ran from 5 pm un­til mid­night last Thurs­day for eight nom­i­nees—two for To­ba­go West and six for To­ba­go East.

The par­ty has yet to fi­nalise its To­ba­go West can­di­date, with de­lib­er­a­tions still on­go­ing.

Po­lit­i­cal leader Far­ley Au­gus­tine had pre­vi­ous­ly said he was con­fi­dent that any of the nom­i­nees could de­feat the in­cum­bent PNM rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

Thomas is set to go up against PNM’s Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy. Mean­while, PDP leader Wat­son Duke has yet to an­nounce his can­di­dates or con­firm when his par­ty’s screen­ing process will take place.