# Democratic Action Congress

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Democratic_Action_Congress
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Democratic_Action_Congress.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Action_Congress
> Source revision: 1336062182
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

The **Democratic Action Congress** (DAC) was a [Tobago](/source/Tobago)-based political party in [Trinidad and Tobago](/source/Trinidad_and_Tobago).

## History

The party was established in 1971 by [A. N. R. Robinson](/source/A._N._R._Robinson), and was originally an [autonomist](/source/List_of_historical_autonomist_and_secessionist_movements) party. It first contested general elections in [1976](/source/1976_Trinidad_and_Tobago_general_election),[1] in which it won both Tobago seats, taken by Robinson and [Winston Murray](/source/Winston_Murray_(Trinidad_and_Tobago_politician)). The party went on to dominate the [Tobago House of Assembly](/source/Tobago_House_of_Assembly), and retained both seats in the [1981 elections](/source/1981_Trinidad_and_Tobago_general_election).

In 1986 the party merged into the [National Alliance for Reconstruction](/source/National_Alliance_for_Reconstruction). However, after the NAR lost control of the Tobago House of Assembly in 2001, an attempt was made to oust [Hochoy Charles](/source/Hochoy_Charles) as the NAR leader in Tobago in 2004. As a result, Charles left the NAR and re-formed the DAC. In the [2005 elections](/source/2005_Tobago_House_of_Assembly_election) the DAC routed the NAR (which was reduced to just 113 votes), but only won a single seat.

In the [2007 national general elections](/source/2007_Trinidad_and_Tobago_general_election) the party failed to win a seat, despite forming an alliance known as the Tobago United Front. From this grouping emerged a new party— the [Tobago Organisation of the People](/source/Tobago_Organisation_of_the_People). Whilst the majority of the DAC supported the merger, Charles withdrew from the merger claiming that the DAC still existed as a separate organisation. However, it did not put forward any candidates for the [2009 elections](/source/2009_Tobago_House_of_Assembly_election).

## References

1. [Nohlen, D](/source/Dieter_Nohlen) (2005) *Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I*, p637 ISBN 978-0-19-928357-6

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Democratic Action Congress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Action_Congress) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Action_Congress?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.