UNC political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said recent changes to the status quo in her party were critical to ensure the party’s victory in the April 28 general election.
Speaking to reporters outside the returning officer’s office in Siparia on April 4, Persad-Bissessar said the changes were a decision by the party’s screening committee.
“The screening committee in its wisdom made the best choices we felt were important to get a victory on the 28th. So there were some switches, some swaps and, of course, some new faces brought in.”
The full slate of 39 candidates (UNC does not contest Tobago seats) was announced at a town hall meeting in Chaguanas on April 3 and included members of the COP, PEP, OWTU and Love Movement as part of a coalition of interests. This included the 15 outstanding members of the slate just hours before nominations needed to be filed. While some incumbents were reselected to fight for their constituency, some existing MPs were shuffled. For instance, former Oropouche West MP Davendranath Tancoo and former Fyzabad MP Dr Lackram Bodoe traded constituencies.
“Mr Tancoo originally is from Fyzabad and always expressed a desire to be the candidate for Fyzabad and Dr Bodoe lives closer to Oropouche West. So they were both very happy with that swap,” Persad-Bissessar said after filing her nomination papers.
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Among the switches were Pointe-a-Pierre (now called Claxton Bay) MP David Lee would now contest the Caroni Central seat instead of its former representative Arnold Ram and deputy political leader Jearlean John would contest Couva North instead of its previous representative, Ravi Ratiram.
Persad-Bissessar, along with all other prospective candidates, filed their nomination papers on April 4 to officially become candidates for the April 28 race.
“We are exceedingly confident,” she said.
The UNC leader also defended her plans for the country if elected against questions of how she would fund these ideas. She said the party intends to use savings gained from “cutting out the waste” and growing and introducing new revenue streams.
“We have the ways to grow revenue streams. We have the ways to create new jobs and we did it before and we can do it again. We have the track record.”
Persad-Bissessar blamed Prime Minister Stuart Young and his predecessor Dr Keith Rowley’s relationship with Venezuela for US President Donald Trump’s ten per cent “reciprocal tariff” on TT’s exports to the US. If elected, she said her administration would work with regional and international partners on trade issues such as these.
Also contending for the Siparia seat would be the PNM’s Natasha Mohammed who filed her nomination papers about an hour before Persad-Bissessar.
The first-time candidate said she chose to run to bring about change in the constituency and country. She said she is not phased going up against the UNC political leader for the seat.
“(I feel) very positive. Today I want to wish her all the best and all the rest of candidates all the best as well.”
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Both Mohammed and Persad-Bissessar described the filing process as having gone smoothly.
