A NEW political party that will comprise Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Chief Secretary Farley Augustine is on the horizon.
On Tuesday, the party that is yet to be named emphasised that it was the launch of the process of building a new political party and not the launch of an actual party.
That event took place at Shaw Park Cultural Complex, Scarborough on Tuesday evening.
Speaking with the media before the meeting, Augustine said there would have been a vote to decide the party’s name, colour and symbol.
The media were not allowed to enter the closed door event in order to facilitate the voting, he said.
A draft constitution has been drafted and would be discussed at subsequent meetings, Farley added.
He said, “One of the things I was very clear on when the team approached me and we discussed this matter was that I, Farley Chavez Augustine, will not be registering a party name or symbol because given my experience and what I have seen in the political history of Tobago, it should never ever happen again where a political leader at some point can turn around and say ‘well look this is my party, I own it, I register it. It is in my name and I will do what I want.”
Farley added, “And so, to give that confidence to the people, I have said to them you will be the one to register a party and a symbol and a name and I will follow suit with that which the people from the ground have decided on. So this is really a ground up approach like never before seen.”
He also said, “This is ultimately a bottoms-up approach. It is not the approach where leaders sit in a dark room and decide what the party name and symbol should be. There will also be discussions about the constitution and, of course, what the tenets of the constitution should be.”
Farley made history when the party he formally belonged to, the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) led by Watson Duke toppled the People’s National Movement (PNM) stronghold in December 2021 with an overwhelming victory 14-1 in the THA election.
However, that party began to crumble months after, starting with a fallout with Farley and Duke which saw the resignation of the entire THA executive from the party.
Duke who was Deputy Secretary of the THA also resigned from that position.
Duke however, has consistently said that he was not daunted by the exodus of membership and that his party remained strong as ever.
