PNM candidate for Tobago West Shamfa Cudjoe-Lewis said she and Tobago East candidate Ayanna Webster-Roy were not "two little girls" sitting silently in cabinet but rather had lobbied for many of the big projects now materialising including the $2.1 billion new terminal of the ANR Robinson Airport and so deserved to be voted back into office of election day, April 28.
She was addressing the PNM's Big Red Rally in Tobago on April 6, also due to be addressed by Prime Minister Stuart Young and former PM Dr Keith Rowley.
"We understand the seriousness of the assignment," she said, promising governance that was caring, competent and compassionate.
Cudjoe-Lewis said how people voted would determine the fate of the nation's children and the national treasury, and would affect people's lives not just for the next five years, but for decades to come.
She boasted of new schools built by the Government – Mason Hall Secondary, Pentecostal Light and Life, Goodwood High School, Bayside High School and Scarborough RC. Also built, she said, were community centres at Buccoo, Bethel, Lambeau, Canaan and Bethsheda, plus public swimming pools at Black Rock and Kendall.
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Cudjoe-Lewis boasted of projects like the Shaw Park Cultural Central and Victor E Bruce Financial Complex, plus a $600 million eco business park and $300 million gas processing plant at Cove. The Government had refurbished Scarborough Hospital and built a new Roxborough Hospital, she added.
"We don't just build for today, we build for the future.
"I made a promise to deliver, and deliver I did."
Cudjoe-Lewis said the PNM had drafted documents on Tobago internal-self government.
Eight youngsters from Tobago had benefited from internships at WASA. She boasted of TT's first ever crab farm in Tobago. Cudjoe-Lewis said under the PNM government,Tobago had benefited from an improved water-supply, more street lighting and the de-silting of hillsides.
Cudjoe-Lewis warned voters that a vote for the TPP was equivalent to a vote for the UNC.
She said the PNM had held a lengthy screening process whereby nominees could be investigated and if need be rejected, but suggested that was not so for the UNC nor the TPP. She said the TPP had screened two people, but ended up with someone else. She alleged the TPP would "deliver us into the hands of the UNC."
"If you love Tobago, what can the UNC give us?" she asked.
She alleged the TPP would go to Trinidad to negotiate with the UNC. "It is a whole sell-out operation happening."
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Cudjoe-Lewis said the UNC was not serious about Tobago internal self-government, even as she questioned what the TPP might hope to negotiate if they won just two seats.
Saying such a change needed a constitutional majority in Parliament made up of 31 seats, she said, "Even we in the PNM, with 22 seats, couldn’t get it."
Of the election, she said the PNM's rivals were trying to get PNM voters upset enough to stay home on election day.
"Elections are won on election day."
"The PNM is about stability, so everybody could get a piece of the pie."
For her part, Webster-Roy said the government had provided "a myriad of training opportunities" for Tobago youngsters.
She cited the UWI Foundation Programme and the Barbershop Initiative.
"Even when the opportunities were in Trinidad, we ensured the young people of Tobago benefited."
Webster-Roy said the government had created opportunities for small business in Tobago, and had boosted health, education, housing, digital transformation, and social protection.
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"We protected the vulnerable, gave voice to the voiceless, empowered our youth and uplifted our women."
