Loyse Vin­cent

Chair­man of the To­ba­go Coun­cil of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment Stan­ford Cal­len­dar says Dr Denise Tsoiafatt-An­gus is no longer a mem­ber of the par­ty, fol­low­ing a de­ci­sion to run as an in­de­pen­dent can­di­date in the Jan­u­ary 25 To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly elec­tions.

How­ev­er, Tsoiafatt-An­gus says that state­ment “doesn’t mean any­thing” to her, as she has not re­ceived any of­fi­cial cor­re­spon­dence from the par­ty on the is­sue.

How­ev­er, through a re­lease yes­ter­day, Cal­len­dar said Tsoiafatt-An­gus’ de­ci­sion to con­test the THA elec­tions against a PNM can­di­date was one of the most se­ri­ous vi­o­la­tions of the par­ty. Cal­len­der pre­sent­ed ex­cerpts of the par­ty’s con­sti­tu­tion to ce­ment his claim:

Ar­ti­cle 22: Dis­ci­pline states

1. Any mem­ber of the Move­ment who shall, in ri­val­ry or op­po­si­tion to any par­ty Can­di­date or Nom­i­nee, or oth­er­wise in de­fi­ance of, or con­trary to any par­ty di­rec­tive or de­clared pol­i­cy or prin­ci­ple or an­nounce­ment, or to the in­ter­ests of the Move­ment:

(a) pub­licly an­nounce his in­ten­tion to par­tic­i­pate in or con­test, or be a can­di­date or nom­i­nee for elec­tion to a seat on any Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tion or oth­er Pub­lic Body; or

(b) ac­cept nom­i­na­tion or ap­point­ment to any such Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tion or Pub­lic Body “ Shall there­upon cease to be a mem­ber of the Move­ment and shall not sub­se­quent­ly be or en­ti­tled to be a mem­ber of the Move­ment ex­cept af­ter the ex­pi­ra­tion of five (5) years from the date of such an­nounce­ment or par­tic­i­pa­tion or ac­cep­tance or con­sent or oth­er­wise as the case may be as de­ter­mined by the Gen­er­al Coun­cil and then on­ly up­on the ap­proval of and on such terms and con­di­tions as the Gen­er­al Coun­cil may pre­scribe.”

But Guardian Me­dia caught up with Tsoiafatt-An­gus cam­paign­ing at Church Street, Ma­son Hall, yes­ter­day and she said she had not re­ceived any cor­re­spon­dence from the PNM.

“It (PN re­lease) doesn’t mean any­thing. I have not re­ceived any­thing, so I can­not re­spond to any­thing I have not re­ceived,” Tsoiafatt-An­gus said.

Tsoiafatt-An­gus said she was pleased with her cam­paign, adding she was “ex­cit­ed by the re­spons­es she is re­ceiv­ing from per­sons on the ground.” She, how­ev­er, urged all the can­di­dates to fo­cus on what’s im­por­tant in this elec­tion.

“I would re­al­ly like us to fo­cus on what elec­tions are about, elec­tions are about con­nect­ing with the peo­ple and en­sur­ing that they choose the best rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the elec­toral dis­trict and I would urge all of the can­di­dates to fo­cus on that.”