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The Prime Minister is appointed by the President. The President is obligated to appoint the person with the most support in the House of Representatives to this post; this has always been the leader of the party which won the most seats in the previous election.

In 2004 the party was re-formed under the leadership of Hochoy Charles and won a single seat in the 2005 Tobago House of Assembly Elections. Having lost the election and the seat he contested, Charles offered to resign as party leader, but the resignation was not accepted on the grounds that the party needed experienced leadership.

Although Tobago lies to the south of the hurricane belt, it was nevertheless struck by Hurricane Flora on September 30, 1963. The effects of the hurricane were so severe that it changes the face of Tobago's economy. The hurricane laid waste to the plantations of Banana, Coconut and Cocoa, which largely sustained the economy. It also wreaked considerable damage to the largely pristine tropical rainforest that makes up a large proportion of the interior of the northern half of the island. Subsequently, many of the plantations were abandoned and the economy changed direction away from cash crop agriculture towards tourism.

Scarborough, Tobago is the largest town on Tobago, one of the two islands of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and contains more than half of the population of the island. The town is dominated by Fort King George, a 18th Century fortification named for King George III which now hosts a historic/archaeologic museum.

The Head of State of Trinidad and Tobago is the president, currently Professor Emeritus George Maxwell Richards. The President is elected by an Electoral College consisting of the full membership of both houses of Parliament. The parliament consists of two chambers, the Senate (31 seats) and the House of Representatives (36 seats). The members of the Senate are appointed by the president. The 16 Government Senators are appointed on the advice of the Prime Minister, the 6 Opposition Senators are appointed on the advice of the Leader of the Opposition and the 9 Independent Senators are appointed by the President to represent other sectors of civil society. The 36 members of the House of Representatives are elected by the people for a maximum of five years.

Since December 24, 2001, the governing party has been the People's National Movement led by Patrick Manning; the Opposition party is the United National Congress led by Basdeo Panday.

The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is a unitary state, with a parliamentary democracy modelled on that of the UK, from whom it gained independence in 1962. Under the 1976 republican Constitution, the British monarch was replaced as head of state by a President chosen by an electoral college composed of the members of the bicameral Parliament, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The principal economic forces in Tobago are tourism and government spending. Conventional beach and water-sports tourism is largely focussed in the south-east around the airport and the coastal strip. However ecotourism is growing in significance and much of this is focussed on the large area of protected forest in the centre and north of the main island and also on Little Tobago, a small island off the north east tip of the main island.

Little Tobago, the small neighbouring island supports some of the best dry forest remaining in Tobago. Little Tobago and St. Giles Island are important seabird nesting colonies.

Hurricane Flora was one of the strongest and deadliest hurricanes in history. Flora blasted through the Caribbean in September and October, 1963. Flora first struck the island of Tobago as a Category 3 hurricane where it caused such great damage that it changed the economy of the island from cash-crop agriculture towards tourism and fishing. Flora then crossed the Caribbean Sea and strenghened to a Category 4 whand slammed into the southern part of Haiti before hitting Cuba near Guantanamo Bay. Flora then slowed up and stalled over Cuba before veering 180 degrees and heading to the northeast into the Atlantic, sparing the East Coast of the U.S..

Tobago has a land area of 300 km² (116 mi²), and is approximately 42 kilometres long and 10 kilometres wide. It is located at latitude 11°N, longitude 60°W, slightly north of Trinidad. The population is 54,084 (2000). The capital of Tobago is Scarborough, with a population of about 17,000. While Trinidad is multiethnic, the population of Tobago is overwhelmingly Afro-Tobagonian, although with a growing proportion of Indo-Trinidadians and Europeans (predominantly Germans and Scandinavians). Between 1990 and 2000 the population of Tobago grew by 11.28%, making it one of the fasting growing areas of the country.

Tourism is concentrated in the southwest of the island, around Crown Point, Store Bay, Pigeon Point and Buccoo Reef. This area has large expanses of sand and is dominated by resort type developments. Tobago also has very many idyllic beaches around its coast line especially those at Castara, Bloody Bay and Englishman's Bay.