The results will not change! It's the warning sounded by TPP Tobago East MP David Thomas to the PNM in Parliament today. This as the House approved the EBC's recommendations for Boundary changes for the Electoral Districts in Tobago. Meantime, as Rynessa Cutting tells us, Local Government Minister Khadijah Ameen, says boundary changes will also be coming for Trinidad.
00:00The Tobago People's Party is forecasting that the upcoming THA elections will result in another resounding loss for the PNM in Tobago.
00:10But I want to tell them the results will not change. As a matter of fact, rest assured that the result will get better. Because there is no way we will put God out of our thoughts and cause any infiltration into the politics of Tobago.
00:40Mark my word today. The effort you are making is an effort in futility.
00:51Thomas was speaking as the House brought a motion to approve the 14th report of the Elections and the Boundaries Commission on the boundaries of the electoral districts in the electoral area of Tobago.
01:03The report makes only one boundary adjustment. The transfer of polling division 4948 from Mason Hall to Mariah Bagatelle Bacolet.
01:17Yet remarkably, although there is one boundary adjustment to one polling division, it resulted in two district name changes.
01:27We would want clarity on that point. Bagatelle Bacolet is now changed to Mason Hall South Bagatelle and Mason Hall Mariah is now changed to Mason Hall North Mariah.
01:40Meanwhile, other districts with larger demographic shifts see no renaming. We want an explanation and we want clarity on this.
01:49The opposition lamented that they had only hours to prepare their arguments to debate the motion when the government had been in receipt of the document since August.
01:59However, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Khadija Amin said the government encountered multiple issues which needed to be addressed.
02:08The influencing of boundaries should not be political.
02:15So, therefore, any concern we have, we have been raising it with the EBC.
02:22And the EBC has on this occasion, as I said with a limited time, produced for this parliament, a report that contains 42 pages and an errata sheet that has 29 corrections.
02:42The PNM, the TPP, IDA, Unity of the People and Tobago Liberation Parties are contesting the THA election set for January 12th.
02:56Meantime, further boundary changes may also be coming for Trinidad.
03:00The report prior to this one, the 13th report would have produced an odd number of electoral districts and that is really to break any deadlock if that so occurs.
03:15And that is something that has to be also done in Trinidad where regional corporations with even numbers of electoral districts has to be re-examined.
03:25And this government has appointed a committee to review the boundaries of the municipalities in Trinidad as well.
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