PORT OF SPAIN (CMC):
The main opposition United National Congress (UNC) launched its campaign for the April 28 general election, at the Naparima College in San Fernando, south of here on Monday night, accusing the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) of bringing Trinidad and Tobago into socio-economic ruins over the past nine and a half years.
The UNC, which is expected to enter into some form of coalition with smaller parties for the election, used the launch to present 18 of the 39 candidates it is expected to name, for control of the 41-seat Parliament, with its leader, Kamla Persad Bissessar, saying “We have taken our time to screen over 200 candidates and we have deliberated accordingly.
“We took the time to select the best candidates to represent your interests. But we will have space for everyone to serve when we all work together and win together. So our opponents won’t dictate our pace.
“We are strategic, highly focused and well-prepared. We will roll out our candidates as planned every day between now and Nomination Day. All candidates will be registered on Nomination Day according to the constitutional requirements. I don’t know about our opponents but we follow the Constitution,” she told supporters.
Among the candidates introduced last night were three members of the Progressive Empowerment Party (PEP), including its political leader Phillip Edward Alexander, who will contest the Port of Spain North/St Ann’s West constituency, currently held by Prime Minister Stuart Young since 2015.
The other two PEP candidates are Janice Learmond-Criqui for Diego Martin West seat that was held by former Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley for more than four decades, and Brendon Butts who will face public utilities and former finance minister, Colm Imbert, for the Diego Martin North East constituency.
Prime Minister Young called the general election four months ahead of the fifth anniversary of the PNM’s second consecutive victory at the polls in 2020, and Persad Bissessar told supporters that he had not been selected and not elected for the top job.
Presenting herself as a person who has had to walk the streets with her mother selling door to door, Persad Bissessar said “only a leader who has walked the same roads as you, can truly understand your feelings, pains and ambitions and make decisions in your best interest.
“So when political leaders come to you asking for your vote, ask them, where is your track record? What is your track record?”
Persad Bissessar, who turns 73, six days before the election, praised her “hard working” mother for creating and moulding “the first female attorney general, the first female leader of the opposition and the first female prime minister”.
She said the 50-year-old Prime Minister Young had no shared experiences with the rank-and-file PNM members, questioning how could he hope to have that with the people.
“He can never understand or appreciate your circumstances, so you will never win with him,” she said, adding that a UNC government would work to decrease taxes on people’s retirement benefits and private pensions.