RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Prepa­ra­tions are un­der­way at the Cou­va South Hall as the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress gets set to host its “Re­port to the Na­tion” to­day – an event ex­pect­ed to draw thou­sands of sup­port­ers.

Yes­ter­day, work­ers were seen erect­ing large tents draped in the par­ty’s sig­na­ture yel­low, blue and white, while rows of chairs were be­ing packed and stages con­struct­ed to ac­com­mo­date the mas­sive turnout.

The venue has al­so been pow­er-washed and cleared, with or­gan­is­ers in­stalling up­grad­ed ameni­ties, in­clud­ing lux­u­ry re­stroom fa­cil­i­ties.

Over 10,000 hand flags have been print­ed, and ban­ners set up.

Loud speak­ers perched on top of ve­hi­cles drove through vil­lages in Gol­con­da, Di­a­mond, Friend­ship, St Johns, whip­ping up ex­cite­ment for the ral­ly.

In the UNC con­stituen­cies of Oropouche East, Oropouche West, Siparia, Fyz­abad, Princes Town, Point Fortin, La Brea and Moru­ga/Table­land, trans­porta­tion has been arranged for foot sol­diers ahead of the ral­ly.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties Bar­ry Padarath de­scribed the event as both a re­view of the Gov­ern­ment’s first year in of­fice and a plat­form to out­line its fu­ture di­rec­tion.

“It’s high­ly ex­hil­a­rat­ing and very pro­duc­tive. It’s meant to do two things—one, give a re­port to the na­tion in terms of the Gov­ern­ment’s suc­cess and the Gov­ern­ment’s per­for­mance over the last year, as well as pro­vid­ing a clear roadmap for the way for­ward in terms of what our plans, poli­cies and ob­jec­tives,” Padarath said.

He said Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is ex­pect­ed to out­line the Gov­ern­ment’s achieve­ments since re­turn­ing to of­fice, while sig­nalling pri­or­i­ties for the pe­ri­od ahead.

Padarath said the UNC as­sumed of­fice af­ter “ten years of pro­longed stag­na­tion,” with key chal­lenges in the econ­o­my, crime and na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty.

“It is no se­cret we came in­to of­fice af­ter ten years of pro­longed stag­na­tion, very lit­tle hap­pen­ing in many crit­i­cal sec­tors, whether it is in the econ­o­my or crime, na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty. These have been our fo­cus de­spite the chal­lenges that we have in­her­it­ed,” he said.

He point­ed to what he de­scribed as gains in leg­is­la­tion, diplo­ma­cy and the en­er­gy sec­tor.

“We have had many leg­isla­tive suc­cess­es. We have had suc­cess both geopo­lit­i­cal­ly, as well as in the en­er­gy sec­tor, and oth­er crit­i­cal ar­eas as well,” Padarath added.

Ac­cord­ing to him, the event al­so serves as an ac­count­abil­i­ty mech­a­nism for the par­ty.

“It gives the arms of the par­ty an op­por­tu­ni­ty to ac­count first to the ve­hi­cle that brought us in­to Gov­ern­ment, and then the na­tion at large,” he said.

The “Re­port to the Na­tion” will al­so co­in­cide with the UNC’s 37th an­niver­sary, adding a cel­e­bra­to­ry tone to the pro­ceed­ings.

Padarath said Per­sad-Bisses­sar is ex­pect­ed to fo­cus not on­ly on achieve­ments but on what lies ahead.

“The Prime Min­is­ter will speak of the brighter days that are ahead for the coun­try at large,” he said, urg­ing cit­i­zens to pay close at­ten­tion to the ad­dress.

“I ask all cit­i­zens to stay tuned… as the Ho­n­ourable Prime Min­is­ter shares with us her vi­sion, but more im­por­tant­ly, trans­lat­ing that vi­sion in­to re­al­i­ty for all of the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go,” Padarath said.