Hours after the High Court dismissed the UNC’s election petition, the opposition party held a meeting and forum in Couva, rallying supporters for the upcoming local government elections.
Addressing the hundreds gathered at the party’s Couva South regional office on Friday night, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar described the ruling as a victory.
“I can feel it, I can taste it and I know victory is ours tonight!” she said. “Today I declare victory in the UNC election campaign!! Let no one fool you.”
“This is like the police lock up a man for buying ganja, but after they lock him and bring him to court, they find out he consumed the ganja already, so the police say you break the law but since you use it up already, you can go home. How can you break the law and still end up with something that is legal?”
“That is why I said earlier today, we will challenge that part of the judgement which upheld the results.”
Dozens of local government nominees were announced throughout the night and Persad-Bissessar praised them for their willingness to serve.
“The young, the not-so-young, spanning the length and breadth of Trinidad and Tobago. Over the past weeks, we have screened hundreds of candidates who are willing to serve you and I say you have the greatest power in your hand and that is your vote. You have to vote them out in the local government elections.”
Persad-Bissessar was critical of the PNM administration, saying they had done nothing since taking office on September 7, 2015.
“The Rowley Government has failed to deliver on anything they have promised, reports are coming in from all over this country that the Rowley Government is a do-nothing government,” she said.
Caroni Central MP Dr Bhoe Tewarie, also lashed out at the Government.
“Nothing has been happening. No economic activity, no actions, or decisions and with that, no confidence in a positive economic future and therefore what we have is a standstill economy headed for decline,” he said.
“No activity or action or direction from Government. A hold-strain perspective from the private sector. The result is loss of jobs, downward movement of business profit, no new jobs being created, no new investment, restraint on business expansion, stifled entrepreneurship, more social and economic stress on more people.”