DISCONNECT from the electorate accounted for the People’s National Movement’s (PNM’s) defeat in the April 28 general election, Tobagonians have said.

The Kamla Persad-Bissessar-led United National Congress (UNC) won 26 seats while the PNM got 13. The Tobago People’s Party (TPP) won the Tobago East and West seats.

A female store owner at TLH Plaza, Scarborough, believes the UNC ran a clean campaign even though its naysayers felt differently.

“But I feel the country was at a tipping point emotionally so they were vulnerable and had no other choice to make,” she told Newsday on April 29.

“They only had the UNC as an alternative because the PNM for the past ten years have not been in touch with the ground people. They were disconnected from the people.”

The store owner continued, “They were no listening to the plight of the people because they were in their little bubble and out of touch with the issues that really affected us over the last ten years and the country just ran down.”

She highlighted crime, high food prices, unemployment as some of the issues that are affecting average citizens “so the public had no other choice but to give UNC a chance.”

She added, “Almost the entire map of Trinidad and Tobago was yellow and the UNC actually made history, too, because Point Fortin and La Brea are seats that would normally go to the PNM. That is to show how much people was fed up and wanted a change.”

The store owner believes race was not a factor in the election.

She also observed that Persad-Bissessar appeared to have assumed the role of “mother to the nation” during the campaign.

“It came from an emotional point of view. She said she would give backpay to public servants, repeal the property tax and open back Petrotrin among other things.

“But the only thing she didn’t speak about was succession planning given her age and health condition. If she can’t last the term, what plan does she have? Who is going to succeed her if anything should happen to her.”

Regarding the PNM’s loss to the TPP in Tobago, she said the former prime minister’s comment about Tobagonians behaving like crabs in a barrel also did not sit well with them.

“A lot of people were fed up and they felt disrespected by the comment that people in Tobago behaved like crabs. They were like ‘We not stupid and do not disrespect us.’

“We have the power and when everybody came together, it was not about race or anything. Everybody came together and they wanted change and decided not to take that disrespect.”

Cook Keston Williams also believes that Dr Rowley’s “crab in a barrel,” comment contributed to the PNM’s defeat in Tobago.

“I think people just wanted a change to see what could happen but people felt disrespected by what the former prime minister said about crabs in a barrel. They were upset about it and should have never said that as a prime minister,” he said.

Williams believes the hefty increases proposed by the Salaries Review Commission for the prime minister, members of government and other officials last November,