Some constituents of St Joseph couldn't care less that MP Herbert Volney's seat was declared vacant in Parliament on Monday.They claimed they never saw him.Disappointed with his performance as their MP, residents complained he never visited his constituency after he won his seat and had continued to neglect their needs for development.
"He came when it had election and gave out hampers to certain people. But that was the first and last time. He never came back," said Dora Ablack, of Acono Village, Maracas, St Joseph.Despite St Joseph no longer having representation in Parliament until a by-election is called, constituents said they felt unaffected because they never had representation in the first place."Nobody care that he resigned from the UNC," said Mark Richards of Farm Road, St Joseph. "And nobody care that he lose his seat in Parliament. It didn't affect us."
Richards recalled a meeting at the St Joseph Secondary School last month, where he said the residents who attended did not listen to what the former justice minister had to say.He said they had given up on Volney a long time ago."Volney left us with a broken heart," said another constituent, Joel Hyacinth, at Priya's Mini-Mart on Farm Road."He make decisions for himself and not for his people. He stole our mind away from reality."
When asked if he would vote for Volney a second time, Hyacinth said: "There would be no second chances for Volney. He fool people once and he will fool them again."Hyacinth said it would make no difference whether Volney joined Jack Warner's Independent Liberal Party (ILP) or contested the by-election as an independent candidate, describing any political return by Volney as "The return of the living dead." On the other hand, some residents felt Volney was not the only one to blame for their problems.
"Even before Volney, the last MP wasn't doing anything either," said Bryan Ramchanar, of Riverside Road, St Joseph."So is a continuous thing. People does come, we vote for them in election, and we don't see them until next five years or so. Nobody doing anything, not just Volney."The previous MP was Kennedy Swaratsingh of the PNM.Ramchanar felt an entire cycle of broken promises and failed political leaders were to blame.
As a result, he said, "I don't think I will vote in the next election at all."Hyacinth also felt that politicians only came around in time for elections, and after they won their positions in government, they would easily forget the people who put them there.He said the only MP who ever showed any interest in the people of St Joseph was Carlos John, the former minister of infrastructure development, and hoped that the next MP for St Joseph could be more like him.