With exactly two weeks to go to local government elections the campaigns are heating up and both the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) and the United National Congress (UNC) are hoping to improve their foothold in new territories across the country.
The PNM currently has control of eight regional corporations and the UNC six.
Rural Development and Local Government Minister Kazim Hosein told the T&T Guardian that the PNM wants to capture 10 corporations in the election. They have their eyes set on Chaguanas and Rio Claro/Mayaro Regional Corporations.
Shadow Local Government Minister, Tabaquite MP Dr Surujrattan Rambachan said the UNC is “hoping to retain all the corporations that we now hold and to make gains in others.” He said people have been indicating that they are “dissatisfied and disappointed with the PNM. People feel cheated by the PNM.”
There are six electoral districts in Rio Claro/Mayaro two are controlled by the PNM and six by the UNC. So why does the PNM believe it can wrest the corporation from the UNC?
There are two ministers with roots in Rio Claro and Mayaro, Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat and Energy Minister Franklin Khan.
It’s not the only reason.
Hosein recalled that once before the corporation was equally divided and it came down to the pulling of straws. That was in 2003 when the UNC and the PNM won three each of the six electoral districts in the corporation. In 2013, the dynamics changed the UNC captured four of the districts and the PNM two.
In 2013, the result in Chaguanas was 3-PNM-3-UNC and 2-ILP. The UNC held on to the corporation when the Independent Liberal Party’s (ILP) successful candidate in Charlieville Faaiq Mohammed crossed the floor to join the UNC.
There are high-powered teams on the ground from both parties, the PNM’s campaign manager for the Rio Claro/Mayaro area is deputy political leader Joan Yuille-Williams, the UNC’s campaign team in Rio Claro comprises MP Rushton Paray and Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal.
Efforts to contact Yuille-Williams were futile. Both Paray and Moonilal said they were confident that the UNC will retain the Corporation, but they admit that “it is the election day machinery which will determine the winner.”
Paray said in 2015 when he campaigned in Mayaro “I got a cold shoulder from people who were supporting the PNM, today it is different, there is a shift in their support because they saying they did not expect the callousness of the PNM Government which they are experiencing on social issues.” It is for this reason Paray said that they are encouraging people to vote for the UNC “to send a message to the PNM.”
In Chaguanas, the PNM’s campaign co-ordinator is Trade Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon, while the UNC’s campaign team is led by Chaguanas West MP Ganga Singh and Chaguanas East MP Fazal Karim.
Gopee-Scoon told the T&T Guardian: “I am certain we will be taking the borough of Chaguanas. I don’t fail and what I believe we have going for us is the calibre of our candidates who are outstanding and they are working the ground. There are very committed people and we are working the ground, we are doing what is required.”
She said she was not concerned about the ILP.
“I don’t think the ILP will be able to influence the election as they did last time, because the ILP has lost its voice.”
She said the “PNM understands the borough we have strong support and the PNM is in power, we understand the nature of elections and are committed to serving the people. What people want at the end of the day are better roads, better drains, well-kept schools and parks, it is about equity and citizen participation.”
More money for projects
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has said that this Local Government election is about reform. His Cabinet has already approved a policy document on local government reform which will now be the basis for new legislation. Rowley said that legislation will be before the Parliament by the middle of next year.
Hosein who served as mayor of San Fernando for three years and prior to that as a councillor for eight years said “reform is necessary because many times the number of issues regional corporations are called upon to deal with they don’t have the money to do it.”
He said “the subvention which local government bodies get is little or nothing when we have to fix roads, drains, markets, abattoirs, the money finishes and sometimes you have to use your own to do things. Reform will change that. Local government bodies will get to keep a percentage of the taxes collected, they will get more autonomy and have more control to deliver goods and services.”
He said having come from the system “I am humbled to know that I will be the one taking the reform to the Parliament.”
Last Wednesday, Minister Kazim Hosein joined the walkabout in Charlieville and said the feedback from burgesses was all about “poor representation.” He said people have been talking about “neglect of pavements, roads, drains, the growing number of homeless people they are seeing and the traffic problem.”
Hosein incidentally is the campaign manager for the PNM in the San Fernando Borough Corporation where he served as Mayor up to three weeks ago.
He said on the ground “people are really voicing their concern about the issue of making local government work for them, when there are issues of over grown bushes, play parks in need of attention, flooding the first port of call is the councillor. People want to know that their concerns will be addressed. While government has a role to play, local government is critical to fulfil the needs of the community,” he said.
But the UNC is also claiming to have made in-roads in the corporation. Party officials tell us that they are optimistic they would not just maintain what they have “but we will also broaden our base to include Enterprise North/Esmeralda and Enterprise South,” both of which are currently held by the PNM.
But Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture Avinash Singh, who has been campaigning with the PNM on the ground told the T&T Guardian the PNM would retain the two Enterprise regions and was also looking to win Charlieville, Felicity and Montrose.
The fight for Charlieville, according to Singh, “is one of the most interesting battles for the campaign, the UNC’s Faaiq Mohammed is coming up against his relative Sabeer Ali for the PNM.”
Singh said the PNM was also being supported in the quest to capture Charlieville by former chairman of the UNC Chaguanas West constituency Pundit Satchitanand Mahabir who “has been mustering a lot of non-PNM support.”
Former UNC minister Dhanraj Singh’s daughter Sharda Singh is contesting the Montrose electoral district. Singh said “the community likes her, she has made significant in-roads in Lange Park, people want to give her a chance.”