Disappointed that he was not selected by his team TNT to contest the position of president of the T&T Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA), second vice-president Lynsley Doodhai has decided to contest the post as an independent.
He is one of two independent candidates who will come up against two women in a four-way fight for the president’s position tomorrow.
Doodhai will come up against Jemima Riley, of Eastern Boys’ Government Primary School, Port-of-Spain, Nirmala Chinebas-Dindial of Upper Carapichaima Presbyterian Primary School and Kendell Kittell, of St Pius Boys’ RC School, Arouca. Current president Devenand Sinanan is statuted barred from contesting the position.
Tomorrow, some 11,000 teachers are expected go to the polls to elect five of the 13 candidates to serve as first, second and third vice-presidents and treasurer for the next three years. The general secretary position, held by Fitzroy Daniel, is uncontested.
The polls will be opened from 7 am and will close at 5 pm.
Doodhai said there would be a mobile polling station which would go around the 600 schools in all of the educational districts in Trinidad and Tobago.
He said it was likely that results would be known late tomorrow.
Doodhai was confident that his work over the last three years on the executive of TTUTA would serve him in good stead, as well as the leg work he had done in preparation for the election.
He said his first order of business, should he win would be to proceed with salary negotiations for the period 2014 to 2017, as well as address some of the issues of the curriculum which are challenging teachers.
Having been the leader of the 2011/2014 negotiating team, he said, he was proud of the fact that it was the first time since T&TUTA’s inception, salary negotiations were concluded in record time and without teachers having to engage in nationwide protest action.
“At this critical juncture in our education system where there are so many reform initiatives being introduced, there is the dire need for T&TUTA to be vigilant and zealously ensure that the interests of teachers are represented at all times.
“I intend to bring the same drive and sense of purpose to the office of president as I did as second vice president,” Doodhai said.