Four-way fight for Buccoo/Mt Pleasant seat

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For the past eight years, Ancil Dennis, the Tobago House of Assembly’s youngest Assemblyman and Chief Secretary, has represented the Buccoo/Mt. Pleasant electoral district for the People’s National Movement.

This time around, Dennis who was born and bred in Buccoo, has to contend with two independent candidates- Nickocy Phillips and Ricardo Phillip, and the Progressive Democratic Patriots’(PDP) Jamie Baird.

The electoral district puts Tobago on the world map for its crab and goat races and the famous, probably most photographed place on the island, the Buccoo Reef.

The older villagers told Guardian Media Dennis did “a good job over the years.”

Fishermen, who spent time with Dennis when he owned a boat for recreation, said he would do more for them if he is reelected.

Valdis Peters, a fisherman told Guardian Media, the Tobago House of Assembly should provide more safety at sea for fishermen.

“They (THA) could give us more assurances so that when we go out, we will feel safer.”

He claimed when fishermen call the Coast Guard for help “it is a waste of time as, by the time they arrive on the scene, all the illegal fishermen are gone.”

Another fisherman, who does not want to be identified, also said the THA and Coast Guard could do more to provide” fishermen with a greater level of comfort.”

Both identified the infrastructural work taking place on the oceanfront at Buccoo as an example of the village’s progress.

Others did not.

Many said it was long overdue. They also said youths needed jobs or opportunities to create businesses.

Asked about the three other candidates vying for their votes, they said they hardly knew them.

In the last election, the PNM won most of the votes.

According to the Election and Boundaries Commission’s statistics, Dennis received the highest percentage of votes overall in the 2017 THA elections. Sixty-eight per cent of the electorate in his district voted for him. However, the district recorded the lowest voter turnout, totalling 43 per cent.

In 2017, the PDP and Tobago Forwards received a combined total of 33 per cent of the votes.

Even though the Tobago Forwards will not contest the elections, it has asked its supporters to give the PDP their votes.