Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

gail.alexan­der@guardian.co.tt

To­ba­go is un­der po­lit­i­cal spot­light as 2026 be­gins, with the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) elec­tions set for Jan­u­ary 12—a cru­cial one for all po­lit­i­cal sides.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, To­ba­go’s Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) deputy leader Dr Faith Breb­nor said the par­ty’s fo­cus for 2026 in­cludes ad­vanc­ing the au­ton­o­my is­sue with a “ref­er­en­dum” in To­ba­go.

“We are al­so fo­cus­ing on con­tin­ued de­vel­op­ment of the pri­vate sec­tor by fur­ther build­ing out of the To­ba­go De­vel­op­ment Fund.”

Mean­while, Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP) leader Wat­son Duke said his par­ty is sup­port­ing the TPP led by Far­ley Au­gus­tine for an­oth­er term.

Duke said he is sup­port­ing Au­gus­tine in “an­tic­i­pa­tion” that he will im­prove in his man­age­ment of the THA.

Duke added, “The PDP is and will al­ways be the fa­ther of the TPP.”

Asked about the par­ty’s 2026 fo­cus, Peo­ples’ Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) deputy leader San­jiv Bood­hu said the PNM will con­tin­ue to seek the in­ter­ests of the peo­ple through sound lead­er­ship, ex­pe­ri­ence, com­pe­tence and re­spect for democ­ra­cy, fo­cused on in­clu­siv­i­ty and en­gage­ment of all.

“For THA elec­tions, PNM po­lit­i­cal leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is giv­ing all the sup­port pos­si­ble to To­ba­go po­lit­i­cal leader An­cil Den­nis to en­sure the THA is led by the PNM for the next term, par­tic­u­lar­ly be­cause Gov­ern­ment’s for­eign pol­i­cy has placed T&T in­to a geopo­lit­i­cal­ly pre­car­i­ous po­si­tion af­fect­ing cit­i­zens’ se­cu­ri­ty, and the eco­nom­ic tra­jec­to­ry of T&T’s fu­ture.”

He added that To­ba­go has been look­ing at Trinidad and see­ing the ef­fects of un­ful­filled cam­paign promis­es.

“A gov­ern­ment do­ing the op­po­site of what it promised to do.”

He said, “Mak­ing it worse, the dis­re­spect that the UNC Gov­ern­ment con­tin­ues to show to To­ba­go while di­rect­ly ex­pos­ing them to se­ri­ous in­se­cu­ri­ty and phys­i­cal threat to life, is cause for alarm. This is a time for re­spon­si­ble, ex­pe­ri­enced and care­ful man­age­ment and gov­er­nance. Tak­ing a chance is out of the ques­tion. The UNC has treat­ed the THA Chief Sec­re­tary as a lit­tle boy—told to sit in the cor­ner with his fin­ger on his lips while the big boys call the shots, and he’s per­ceived to have sold out to them, and there­fore has to take that treat­ment, and stay qui­et. This is not what the peo­ple of To­ba­go will ever sub­scribe to or al­low for them­selves.”

Bood­hu said, “To­ba­go de­serves to be con­sult­ed on their na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty and to de­ter­mine where the lives of their peo­ple is con­cerned, what role if any, they wish to play in any fights amongst gi­ants that may be hap­pen­ing around us. But to take de­ci­sions that put them in di­rect dan­ger, not ask them first, not tell them af­ter, and then say they have to take that, is out of the ques­tion! The TPP sim­ply can­not rep­re­sent the best in­ter­ests of To­bag­o­ni­ans. The PNM is the on­ly choice if they’re to be re­spect­ed and to hold cen­tral Gov­ern­ment to ac­count.”

Shar­ing the par­ty’s New Year plans, In­no­v­a­tive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Al­liance (IDA) po­lit­i­cal leader Dr Denise Tsoiafatt-An­gus said the IDA in 2026 will move to sta­bilise To­ba­go and get eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment un­der­way by em­pow­er­ing com­mu­ni­ties as ex­tend­ed arms of the THA.

“We’re en­ter­ing a pe­ri­od of se­ri­ous un­cer­tain­ty; geopo­lit­i­cal­ly, na­tion­al­ly and eco­nom­i­cal­ly. To­ba­go can­not af­ford to drift. With de­clin­ing in­comes, tight­en­ing na­tion­al fi­nances and in­creased ex­ter­nal risks, the IDA’s ap­proach will be to fo­cus on peo­ple-cen­tred, com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven de­vel­op­ment us­ing every au­thor­i­ty avail­able un­der the THA Act.”

Tsoiafatt-An­gus said To­ba­go must be­gin to gen­er­ate its own eco­nom­ic mo­men­tum rather than re­main­ing de­pen­dent on a “stressed” na­tion­al econ­o­my.

“The IDA there­fore in­tends re­set­ting To­ba­go’s de­vel­op­ment mod­el by plac­ing de­ci­sion-mak­ing pow­er, in­vest­ment ca­pac­i­ty and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty where de­vel­op­ment ac­tu­al­ly hap­pens: in com­mu­ni­ties. It is a law­ful, struc­tured and re­al­is­tic ap­proach, and is the ba­sis on which the IDA is con­fi­dent in its readi­ness to gov­ern af­ter Jan­u­ary 12.”

TPP’s po­lit­i­cal leader Far­ley Au­gus­tine and PNM To­ba­go Coun­cil leader An­cil Den­nis were al­so con­tact­ed but did not re­spond.