No more negotiations, time for fresh elections.
That is essentially the word from the People’s National Movement (PNM) Tobago Council, after they announced on Sunday that it has decided to call off any future talks with the Progressive Democratic Patriots(PDP) about sharing the governance of Tobago.
The decision by the PNM comes on the heels of a Facebook post by political leader of the PDP, Watson Duke on Saturday, in which Duke said “all deals are off the table.”
PNM Tobago Council leader Tracy Davidson-Celestine, speaking to GML, said “We will not allow the PDP leader Watson Duke to bully us. If he isn’t prepared to accept the law then he makes it difficult for us to move forward. His public rants are not encouraging and clearly what the PDP is attempting to do is to create a parallel Executive Council which doesn’t auger well for the good governance of the island.”
She said the “Given that all deals are off the table … we await the passage of the bill to trigger the next elections.”
Davidson-Celestine said Duke must understand that if we don’t operate within the mechanism afforded to us, that the THA operations will be brought into chaos.”
“Watson Duke has cursed the THA Act and has cursed anyone who has indicated that the Act should be followed. What therefore is he saying to the people of Tobago?”
“We are willing to negotiate, but only within the confines of the ACT. The PDP leader must put Tobago first,” she said.
PDP’s deputy leader Farley Augustine said: “There is absolutely no tenant of the THA Act that forbids us from publicly disclosing beforehand how we are going to divide the Divisions between both parties. The PNM wants us to give them a blank cheque. They want us to buy a cat in a bag. They want us to make Mrs Davidson-Celestine Chief Secretary and to leave it all up to her to decide how she and not the team will divide the responsibilities of the Executive Council.”
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