With an em­phat­ic fresh man­date se­cured by the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) in Mon­day’s To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) elec­tion, the Far­ley Au­gus­tine-led ad­min­is­tra­tion re­turns to of­fice at a mo­ment of both op­por­tu­ni­ty and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

While the 15-0 re­sult con­firms To­ba­go’s con­tin­u­ing shift to­ward To­ba­go-cen­tred po­lit­i­cal lead­er­ship, the seem­ing­ly low vot­er turnout can­not be ig­nored. It sug­gests not ap­a­thy alone, but lin­ger­ing pub­lic scep­ti­cism about whether elec­tions con­sis­tent­ly trans­late in­to im­proved lives. That re­al­i­ty places an added bur­den on the re­turn­ing ad­min­is­tra­tion: it must gov­ern in a way that re­stores con­fi­dence and proves par­tic­i­pa­tion is worth­while.

At the heart of the TPP’s man­date is the ur­gent need for sus­tain­able, peo­ple-cen­tred de­vel­op­ment. To­ba­go’s econ­o­my re­mains over­ly de­pen­dent on tourism, ex­pos­ing the is­land to glob­al shocks such as pan­demics, nat­ur­al dis­as­ters and in­ter­na­tion­al down­turns. Eco­nom­ic di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion is there­fore es­sen­tial. Along­side di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion, the THA must pri­ori­tise the cre­ation of sta­ble, year-round em­ploy­ment, par­tic­u­lar­ly for young To­bag­o­ni­ans, through en­tre­pre­neur­ship sup­port, vo­ca­tion­al train­ing and strength­ened small-busi­ness de­vel­op­ment.

In­fra­struc­ture and pub­lic ser­vices de­mand equal at­ten­tion. Long-stand­ing de­fi­cien­cies in roads, drainage and bridges—es­pe­cial­ly in rur­al com­mu­ni­ties—con­tin­ue to un­der­mine safe­ty, mo­bil­i­ty and eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty. In­ter-is­land trans­port re­mains a life­line for To­ba­go’s econ­o­my and so­cial well-be­ing, and air and sea links must be de­pend­able, af­ford­able and ef­fi­cient if the is­land is to thrive.

In­vest­ment in ed­u­ca­tion and skills de­vel­op­ment is equal­ly crit­i­cal. Struc­tured youth pro­grammes, men­tor­ship ini­tia­tives and tar­get­ed em­ploy­ment schemes can help en­sure that young To­bag­o­ni­ans are equipped not just to find work, but to build mean­ing­ful ca­reers at home and be­yond.

No ad­min­is­tra­tion can af­ford to side­step To­ba­go’s long-stand­ing call for greater au­ton­o­my and im­proved gov­er­nance. Since the THA’s es­tab­lish­ment in 1980, con­trol has al­ter­nat­ed be­tween To­ba­go-based par­ties and na­tion­al po­lit­i­cal forces, from the De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Ac­tion Con­gress’ ear­ly dom­i­nance to decades of PNM con­trol. The po­lit­i­cal re­align­ment that fol­lowed the 2021 elec­tions, cul­mi­nat­ing in the emer­gence of the TPP, re­flects a grow­ing pref­er­ence for lo­cal lead­er­ship ground­ed in To­ba­go’s re­al­i­ties. The As­sem­bly must now press for en­hanced de­ci­sion-mak­ing au­thor­i­ty, pre­dictable fund­ing arrange­ments and in­sti­tu­tion­al re­forms that al­low To­ba­go gen­uine con­trol over land use, de­vel­op­ment plan­ning and re­sources. Trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty will be es­sen­tial if pub­lic trust—re­flect­ed in stronger vot­er par­tic­i­pa­tion—is to be re­built.

Tourism will re­main cen­tral to To­ba­go’s econ­o­my, but its fu­ture must be sus­tain­able. The fo­cus should shift from vol­ume-based ar­rivals to high-val­ue ex­pe­ri­ences root­ed in eco-tourism, her­itage and com­mu­ni­ty life, while pro­vid­ing mean­ing­ful sup­port to small op­er­a­tors, ar­ti­sans and cul­tur­al prac­ti­tion­ers.

En­vi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion, cli­mate re­silience and so­cial well-be­ing are in­sep­a­ra­ble from eco­nom­ic progress. Coastal man­age­ment, reef and for­est preser­va­tion, cli­mate-re­silient in­fra­struc­ture and dis­as­ter pre­pared­ness are vi­tal to To­ba­go’s sur­vival. At the same time, ad­dress­ing the high cost of liv­ing, sup­port­ing vul­ner­a­ble pop­u­la­tions, and ex­pand­ing com­mu­ni­ty health and men­tal well­ness ser­vices will strength­en the is­land’s so­cial fab­ric.

The TPP’s strong THA show­ing al­so en­hances its bar­gain­ing pow­er with the cen­tral gov­ern­ment in Port of Spain, par­tic­u­lar­ly as To­ba­go’s MPs en­gage the UNC ad­min­is­tra­tion on fund­ing, au­ton­o­my and na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment pri­or­i­ties. This man­date must be used strate­gi­cal­ly and re­spon­si­bly.

To­ba­go’s chal­lenges are in­ter­con­nect­ed, and its so­lu­tions must be holis­tic. The elec­torate has de­liv­ered a man­date—but the mut­ed turnout is a warn­ing. The task be­fore the new THA ad­min­is­tra­tion is not on­ly to gov­ern, but to con­vince To­bag­o­ni­ans that their par­tic­i­pa­tion mat­ters. De­liv­er­ing re­al, vis­i­ble progress is the surest way to do so.