Support for Tracy grows but Charles unfazed

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Tracy Davidson-Celestine received endorsements from Dr Denise Tsoiafatt-Angus and Joel Jack in her bid to become Political Leader of the Tobago Council of the People’s National Movement.

Ambassador Davidson-Celestine is challenging the incumbent Political Leader and Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles in a runoff carded for Sunday.

The two got the most votes at last Sunday’s internal election.

In an interview with Guardian Media Davidson-Celestine said, she welcomes the endorsements.

“I am very excited going forward, considering the fact that Dr Denise Tsoiafatt-Angus and also Joel Jack are giving me their support. We have both agreed that we would move towards the same objective, which is to ensure that we have the change within the party and of course my manifesto spoke about a 100-day plan and agenda-mission critical, which would see leaders coming together to heal the hurt and pain and more so to ensure that we are organized for the very near future and the things that would have to come” she said.

Davidson-Celestine said she has some concerns about the direction that Tobago is heading. In projecting her win on Sunday, she said, she wants attention to be paid on Tourism and Agriculture on the island

“There have been endless complaints within the Tourism Sector, with a view to ensuring that we have the right approach to marketing and also that we have the product offering, so that is one of the areas that I am going to focus heavily on.”

“We have to treat with the issue of food security on the island and it is how we incentivize farmers and cause inspiration and motivation within the agricultural sector to ensure that we have more planting taking place,” she said.

Meanwhile, incumbent Political Leader Kelvin Charles said, he is not daunted by Jack and Angus’ backing of his opponent. He said, his team has deployed workable strategies and intensified their efforts in recent days

“The search is on. One is trying to ensure that one at the end of the day gets to the victory line first and therefore, one cannot slow down, so we have picked up the pace in respect of those activities that are germane to our campaign, so that’s what we’re doing, we have intensified our efforts in the various districts as to persuade persons” he said.

At the first round of the elections, 3417 members voted against Charles, which represents approximately 70 per cent of the electorate however he said, going into the runoff the feedback has been quite good. He said, his current position is not unique.

He said he has a good record of performance as Political Leader of the Tobago Council, as well as the Chief Secretary of the THA. He said, people have not been criticizing his performance, but more to demonize him.

“That has been their basic strategy, but I hope people understand that the end of the day, people want to have delivered to them goods and services, good governance, fair governance, transparent governance, clean governance, efficient governance and that is what I am offering,” he said.