Nearly four and a half years after stepping away from the New National Party (NNP) over ideological differences, former Grenadian Opposition Leader Tobias Clement has announced he will return to the party’s fold as a campaign supporter for the upcoming general election scheduled for November 5.
Clement first opened up about his decision in a post-rally interview following Sunday’s “NNP Better for Everybody” gathering held in the country’s capital, St George’s. He explained that his 2019 exit stemmed from growing discomfort with the NNP’s shifting trajectory and the type of new members joining the party at the time. When he left, he said the party had strayed from its core founding principles — a concern he shared openly with former NNP Political Leader Dr Keith Mitchell, who repeatedly invited him to rejoin. “Doc has always told me to come home, but I said to him, clean the house,” Clement recalled in the interview. “Now that the house is clean, you know, one will feel comfortable.”
The overture to bring Clement back to the NNP campaign came from the party’s newly elected leader Emmalin Pierre, who is vying to make history as Grenada’s first female prime minister. Pierre reached out to Clement several weeks ago to request his assistance campaigning in specific constituencies, an invitation he ultimately accepted. “The political leader of the New National Party engaged me a few weeks ago, and I told her that I would come and do some help in a few of the constituencies,” Clement confirmed. He went on to name the specific areas where he will lend his support: St George’s North-East — the constituency he represented for two consecutive parliamentary terms as an NNP candidate — along with Carriacou, Petite Martinique, and other unspecified regions.
Clement’s political journey since leaving the NNP has seen several shifts. After resigning from the party in late 2019, he kept his seat in Parliament and went on to assume the role of Leader of the Opposition in April 2020. In August 2021, he announced he would align his political support with the NNP’s main rival, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), though he never formally joined the party as a registered member.
Today, even as he joins the NNP’s election campaign, Clement clarified that he has not formally rejoined the organization as a card-carrying member. He will not run as a candidate in the upcoming vote, though he remains eligible to reapply for full party membership at a later date. The support comes as the NNP works to win back control of government in the upcoming national poll, set to take place across Grenada in just a few weeks.