00:00It will be after I meet with all the nominees, successful and unsuccessful ones,
00:04then I meet the announcement.
00:06I just think that they should hear it from me first before hearing it through the media.
00:10So all 15 names? All 15?
00:14I'm not sure because when I leave here, at some point during the day today,
00:20I will have to re-engage in screening because we do have about four or five additional nominees
00:27that came in from the two districts that we're still reviewing.
00:30But certainly for those that are complete, you will know the names.
00:33Last Friday, the TPP announced the party was still deliberating on nominees
00:38for the Buku Mount Pleasant seat and the Mason Hall Mariah seat.
00:43Since then, some supporters have voiced their disappointment on social media,
00:48threatening to vote PNM, others saying they would not vote.
00:53The TPP leader is, however, not daunted.
00:55That's fine. They're entitled to an opinion.
00:57They're entitled to share it, including publicly.
01:01I feel no way about that.
01:04And I know that they will all love me when I win all 15 seats.
01:06Mr. Augustine said the strategy of deliberating again is not unique to the TPP.
01:12When we had the general election in, that was April, for example, we did hold and go back out and assessed
01:21and eventually we landed on then-Secretary Samson, who is now MP for Tobago West.
01:27When we decide to hold and to continue reviewing and to ask if there are other nominees, it could be one of several reasons.
01:34It could be because the contenders are very close in terms of the assessment and we want some more time.
01:41Two, it's also about looking to see if there are additional options because at the end of the day, we need to win all seats.
01:50So we're not throwing away seats or thinking we win some and we're going to leave some.
01:55We are going to be contesting all seats and we're going to be competitive in all areas.
02:01It's not an indictment on any one of the nominees because we have not, in fact, thrown away the nominees.
02:07We continue to review them and where there are extreme competition and you're hearing the conversations happening in the communities
02:19and the communities seem to be indecisive about who they want and yes to this one, no to that one.
02:25Sometimes it's good to pause, ask them if they have other options and review the thing a second or a third time.
02:32Elizabeth Williams, TV6 News.
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