One day after Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) leader David Abdulah announced he was quitting the UNC-led People's Partnership Government, several UNC activists followed suit, tendering their resignations yesterday.
Former UNC member and councillor for Cocoyea/Tarouba Darren McLeod and Port-of-Spain south UNC activist Juliet Davy turned up at Rienzi Complex, Couva, yesterday and returned party cards from nine people, who they said were no longer interested in being part of the UNC. McLeod said more than 261 people had expressed an interest in leaving the UNC. Asked why none of the activists had showed up, McLeod said many were afraid of being victimised.
He said the People's Partnership had failed in bringing a new type of politics and was engaging in discrimination, nepotism and segregation. Davy, who contested the Port-of-Spain South and Laventille West seats for the UNC in 2001 and 2010, said she was disheartened because UNC members had no voice. "The party does not have a forum in which members can voice their opinions freely. They have several events, but members are not allowed to speak. "On a few occasions when a member spoke out about the party, that member was put to sit down and was told that she disrespected the PM," Davy said. She added that disgruntled UNC members had decided to follow MSJ's lead and form a pressure group called Country First which would serve as a watchdog for the PP. Asked whether she planned to join the MSJ, Davy said: "We would have to decide where we would go, based on the reception we get from the population." She said her group would go to each community and find out what problems people were experiencing.