Watson Duke has an ambitious plan to be PM
ELIZABETH GONZALES
GML Correspondent
Watson Duke still wants to be Prime Minister.
The Leader of the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) says he will announce his candidates for next year’s General Elections once the date is set.
He posted a picture of himself on his Facebook page on Monday with the caption, “Prime Minister in 2025”.
But Duke’s proposed path to PM is an interesting one, and statistically speaking, a longshot.
After his falling out in 2022 with Farley Augustine, leading the Chief Secretary to form the Tobago People’s Party, Duke’s political capital has somewhat dwindled. It’s unlikely he’ll field 41 candidates nationally. So his plan is to run in Tobago East and West and hope votes in Trinidad leave him in a position to become a playmaker, similar to ANR Robinson in 1995.
He said he is open to discussions with former members who want to return to the PDP, as a regular member, not as an executive, for the upcoming General and Tobago House of Assembly elections.
In an interview with Guardian Media Duke explained:
“The political dynamics of 2025 general election can either be one where the PDP has the two seats in Tobago, Tobago East and Tobago West, thus giving way to a minority government in Trinidad where PNM/UNC party would have either 20 seats and the UNC/PNM 19 seats. The other ideal situation is one where both major parties could have 20 seats each, that is the making it 20 seats and the PDP wins one seat in the Tobago East, whereby the PDP would seek a party willing to work with it so that all of Tobago could win, finally.”
In 2020, Duke contested the Tobago East seat but lost to Ayanna Webster-Roy of the PNM by 800 votes. Then, and now, Duke is hoping for a 20 – 20 – 1 election result. He would like to be the tie breaker, deciding whether he’ll join the PNM or the UNC to form the government.
The PNM has yet to embrace a coalition government, often being associated with the mantra of winning alone and losing alone. Even with a coalition, the party would have to nominate Duke as political leader, thus elevating him to Prime Minister.
Asked if he would be contesting the seat again, he only said, “We have a reasonable about of interest express in elections by different people so we can draw from it.”
He told Guardian Media “many people” are interested in running for the PDP in both Tobago East and West. As for his plans for Trinidad, Duke said he’ll make that announcement when the election has been announced.
Duke has contested elections in Trinidad. He campaigned hard in East Port-of-Spain, Sea Lots and Beetham in the run up to the Local Government Election last year, but his party was unable to make inroads into Trinidad electoral politics.
Duke believes his party will do well though, even though all his executive members left to form the Tobago People’s Party.
He remains unfazed by another party entering the ring.
“There have always been third parties in Tobago. Most of them are nuisance parties … they will not get any reasonable amout of votes to cause damage. That is how the PDP emerged.”
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