Po­lit­i­cal par­ties in To­ba­go all say they are ready for bat­tle af­ter the elec­tion date—April 28—was an­nounced yes­ter­day.

Wat­son Duke, leader of the Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP), has con­firmed he will con­test a seat in the 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion, set­ting the stage for a fierce fight in To­ba­go.

Both the PDP and the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) To­ba­go Coun­cil are prepar­ing for a heat­ed con­test in To­ba­go East and To­ba­go West.

Duke, who lost to Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy in To­ba­go East by 1,261 votes in 2020, has not yet re­vealed which seat he will con­test. How­ev­er, he hint­ed at his can­di­da­cy in an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, say­ing, “Our can­di­dates are ready, my­self and the oth­er can­di­date. So I’ll let it be known by to­mor­row (Wednes­day).”

He de­clared his con­fi­dence in the PDP’s chances, say­ing, “I am ready. It should have been to­mor­row. The peo­ple of To­ba­go are ready to choose the PDP.”

He added, “I hit the ground months ago, and based on the feed­back I’ve got­ten from peo­ple, PDP is the pre­ferred choice.”

On the oth­er side, An­cil Den­nis, the PNM To­ba­go Coun­cil po­lit­i­cal leader, said his par­ty was ful­ly pre­pared to de­fend both seats.

“We are ready like Fred­dy. As we are aware, the PNM is the on­ly par­ty to have in­tro­duced all our can­di­dates to the pub­lic, so we are ready for this elec­tion,” Den­nis said.

He added that the PNM’s cam­paign will fo­cus on its track record.

“In To­ba­go, our fo­cus is to en­sure we re­tain the two To­ba­go seats. We will be go­ing to the peo­ple of To­ba­go with a very po­tent cam­paign based on the PNM’s achieve­ments and very im­pres­sive track record on the is­land, even from a Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment per­spec­tive.”

In the 2020 elec­tion, the PNM won both seats, with Sham­fa Cud­joe-Lewis win­ning To­ba­go West by a mar­gin of 4,774 votes. With Duke con­firm­ing his can­di­da­cy and both par­ties ready to be­gin cam­paign­ing, the bat­tle for To­ba­go’s two par­lia­men­tary seats has of­fi­cial­ly be­gun.

At the same time, the new­com­er To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) has said it was ready for the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion.

Deputy po­lit­i­cal leader Faith Breb­nor told Guardian Me­dia via What­sApp, “The TPP is ready. We wel­come all To­bag­o­ni­ans to our Spe­cial Con­ven­tion on Sun­day, March 23, 2025, as we move to­wards win­ning To­ba­go East and West.”

TPP leader Far­ley Au­gus­tine said he cor­rect­ly pre­dict­ed the date.

In a me­dia ex­ec­u­tive coun­cil group chat, he said, “Well, I did share with you all the date based on my sources.”

The par­ty re­cent­ly de­cid­ed to re­open nom­i­na­tions on Mon­day for the To­ba­go West seat. 

Af­ter talks with lo­cal ac­tion groups, the TPP ex­ec­u­tive told the screen­ing com­mit­tee to look for new can­di­dates in­stead of con­tin­u­ing with Trevor James and Bar­ry Nel­son.

Thomas has been se­lect­ed as the po­ten­tial can­di­date for To­ba­go East.

Elec­tion date part of PNM’s strat­e­gy—George

To­ba­go Busi­ness Cham­ber chair­man and at­tor­ney Mar­tin George said the rul­ing Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) was en­ter­ing the gen­er­al elec­tion from a “po­si­tion of strength and readi­ness,” while the Op­po­si­tion and oth­er par­ties are still try­ing to get their hous­es in or­der.

He said the April 28 date is part of the PNM’s elec­tion strat­e­gy. His com­ments come af­ter Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young an­nounced the elec­tion date, just a day af­ter be­ing sworn in. 

“One can on­ly imag­ine that the in­ten­tion and think­ing be­hind the call­ing of the elec­tions with such a short lead time is def­i­nite­ly in­tend­ed to catch the op­po­si­tion, you know, maybe ei­ther un­awares or maybe flat-foot­ed or maybe at least, cer­tain­ly not ready yet with their full list of 41 can­di­dates,” George said.

The UNC has yet to con­firm its full slate of can­di­dates and has al­ready in­di­cat­ed it will not con­test seats in To­ba­go. George be­lieves the PNM could cap­i­talise on this.

“Of course, there is more than am­ple time for the Op­po­si­tion to be able to get their house in or­der in terms of find­ing suit­able and, I guess, choice can­di­dates,” he added.

The UNC has been form­ing al­liances with groups like the trade union move­ment and the Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty (PEP), but George be­lieves this is far from the strong coali­tion seen in past elec­tions.

“The re­al­i­ty is that this is noth­ing close to, you know, like the One Love Move­ment of 1986, where there was that groundswell of unit­ing of forces against the in­cum­bent gov­ern­ment. So there’s noth­ing like that here.”

He al­so not­ed that the TPP and PDP in To­ba­go are still strug­gling to fi­nalise can­di­dates, which was an­oth­er in­di­ca­tion of dis­or­gan­i­sa­tion among op­po­si­tion forces.

With elec­tion sea­son of­fi­cial­ly un­der­way, George said all sides will now turn to mak­ing promis­es, but the elec­torate will ul­ti­mate­ly de­cide which par­ty has the cred­i­bil­i­ty to de­liv­er.