The United National Congress (UNC) and its main coalition partner the Congress of the People (COP) are scheduled to hold their final meeting tomorrow to determine which seats they would contest—including the key marginals of San Fernando West and Tunapuna—officials of both parties said yesterday.
Sources also said the meeting might be contentious since various names were being put forward for the seats and “serious decisions” would have to be taken in order to ensure the key marginals had the best candidates to win. Screening continued yesterday and will continue today for a number of seats.
With just a few weeks to go until the September 7 general election, the coalition People’s Partnership is yet to name a full line-up of candidates. The UNC has so far named 12; the COP has named ten candidates, the latest being Hamlyn Jailal for Tunapuna; and the Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) two (including changing one last weekend).
Jailal is the UNC’s constituency chairman in Tunapuna. But UNC campaign manager Rodney Charles later said the names being presented were tentative and selection would be completed later. The National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) is said to be screening for five seats.
Last Friday, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said she wouldn’t be “jumbied” into naming candidates. The coalition parties intend to announce all of their candidates on Sunday, at a political rally at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva, on the eve of Nomination Day. UNC officials said yesterday they opted for the stadium—being used for the first time for a political rally—to ensure cover in the event of rain. They said Mid Centre Mall wasn’t available.
However, the PP’s last rally on September 5—the Saturday before the election day—will be at Aranguez Savannah as done in 2010.
PNM rally at Woodford Square
The Opposition PNM will also hold a political rally on Saturday, at Woodford Square, Port-of-Spain, preceded by a special convention at the City Hall, Port-of-Spain, from 8.30 am to noon when the party’s 41 candidates will be ratified according to PNM protocol. The PNM rally starts from 2 pm. Jack Warner’s Independent Liberal Party will hold a public meeting on Sunday, the same day as the PP’s rally, at Montrose, Chaguanas.
DOOMED TO FAIL
“Is the COP saying that a party that boasted recently of having over 50,000 members, which by the way in reality is approximately 500 active members, and a political party with all that support cannot find one single candidate to represent them in the two marginal seats, so they are compelled to lease a candidate from another party to represent them?” Gary Griffith, campaign manager for the Alliance of Independents said to the T&T Guardian.
“The answer is two-fold, in that firstly the answer is indeed that COP already has no support, so they have no candidate of substance to the point that they were contemplating the return of a minister who retired from active politics almost 30 years ago. Secondly, any candidate that actually goes in a marginal seat as a COP member is doomed.
“When Nicole Dyer-Griffith and tens of thousands of others left the COP, it was never because they were insisting that COP leave the partnership, but what they were demanding was that COP keep their own identity, and for the political peader to stand up and be counted and not have COP be perceived as a UNC puppet.
“This now means that the PP is now solely UNC, comprising hundreds of thousands of UNC supporters, with a handful of supporters from NJAC and COP in that order of priority, so if the AOI do not take part in this upcoming election, then there is no representation of the third constituency of floating voters, so their choice would be similar to the three general elections held from 2000 to 2002 and to vote for the UNC, PNM, or do not vote at all.”
The AOI has yet announced any candidates.