PNM backlash! That’s the view of Opposition UNC Senator Wayne Sturge after a picture of himself with a jersey up, pants open and showing off his Superman briefs was circulated in the public domain minutes after he finished criticising the PNM Government in the Senate on Wednesday.
He said: “I believe it was pure and simple PNM backlash for the matters raised in the Senate.
“The person who alerted me to it minutes after I finished my (Senate) contribution was a PNM councillor who’s on my Facebook page and he indicated to me who put the picture into the public domain.
“It is so obviously a backlash but if this is what they do and if it’s the best they can do, then pathetic.”
Sturge at Wednesday’s Senate budget debate had queried a brief given by the Attorney General’s office to the private attorney of AG Faris Al-Rawi, one Elizabeth Hadad, and had also raised other issues, including a $45 million rental of 1, Alexandra Street from Al-Rawi’s father-in-law and whether attorneys appearing for the Elections and Boundaries Commission in the UNC’s election petition challenge were rewarded with State briefs.
After subsequent circulation of his “Superman” picture, Sturge said the picture had been taken at a “lime” at his home, either at Christmas 2012 or Carnival 2013, and was posted by him on his Facebook some time after as a joke.
He added: “I would not have been a senator at the time.
“It didn’t remain on my Facebook site for very long. In the interim, I’m told a certain lawyer who sent me a ‘friend’ request on Facebook, was the one who stole the picture off the site and made use of it.