RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Now that the elec­tion bells have been rung, trig­ger­ing two by-elec­tions in the Lengua/In­di­an Walk and the Quinam/Morne Di­a­blo elec­toral dis­tricts, res­i­dents from both re­gions say they will be de­mand­ing bet­ter rep­re­sen­ta­tion. 

As po­lit­i­cal par­ties gear up for nom­i­na­tions on May 24 ahead of the June 17 elec­tions, res­i­dents from both ar­eas ex­pressed dis­ap­point­ment with past rep­re­sen­ta­tives, cit­ing sim­i­lar com­plaints of wa­ter short­ages, poor drainage, un­em­ploy­ment, and bad roads plagu­ing their com­mu­ni­ties.

At Clod Av­enue, Lengua, res­i­dent Ak­isha Mc­Carthy said they were hap­py elec­tions were fi­nal­ly called. She men­tioned she has been a die-hard PNM sup­port­er, but de­spite her par­ty be­ing in gov­ern­ment, her com­mu­ni­ty had been suf­fer­ing un­der the PNM.

 “I will vote PNM again on­ly you know be­cause I work for the PNM, but we are not hap­py down here. Peo­ple have no work, we can’t get wa­ter, we need help,” she lament­ed. 

Her rel­a­tive, Alana Mc­Carthy, said her home is on the verge of col­lapse be­cause of a land­slide. 

“When peo­ple we vote for get in­to of­fice, then they for­get about us. So long I asked for help from my coun­cil­lor. I need them to come and fix the cave land be­cause right now I need a room for my child and my two grand­chil­dren,” she said.

Mean­while, at St Croix Road, Ronald Mc­Clean com­plained of poor rep­re­sen­ta­tion. He ex­plained that wa­ter short­ages and un­em­ploy­ment have been crip­pling fam­i­lies, adding that he want­ed bet­ter­ment for him­self and his neigh­bours.

 “Look right now, the tap is dry. We want them to do some­thing for us. Get some work for the youths who are un­em­ployed. That is what is caus­ing the crime. When youths are un­em­ployed, they will go and touch oth­er peo­ple’s things. We look for­ward to the elec­tions,” he added. 

An­oth­er neigh­bour, Hen­der­son Oth­el­lo, said he al­so want­ed a bet­ter stan­dard of life.

 “We have rats run­ning all around, plen­ty of land­slides, but the biggest prob­lem is the wa­ter. Some­times two months pass and still no wa­ter,” he said.

Lengua/In­di­an Walk has sev­en polling di­vi­sions, with the largest be­ing polling di­vi­sion 3655. Last Au­gust, an ini­tial count de­clared a vic­to­ry for the PNM’s can­di­date, Rev­erend Aunt­ly Granthume, but UNC can­di­date Nicole Gopaul queried the re­sult, re­sult­ing in a re­count and a tie.

 Lengua/In­di­an Walk has an elec­torate of 8,388 as of Au­gust 14, 2023, the lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tion date. Out of that num­ber, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 35 per cent went out to vote.

Mean­while, in the elec­toral dis­trict of Quinam/Morne Di­a­blo, res­i­dents had sim­i­lar con­cerns. Their rep­re­sen­ta­tive, Diptee Ram­nath, the chair­man of the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, died last De­cem­ber, leav­ing the seat va­cant. How­ev­er, me­chan­ic An­der­son Mo­han said Ram­nath was not an in­clu­sive rep­re­sen­ta­tive. 

“His rep­re­sen­ta­tion was poor. He nev­er lent an ear to the burgess­es. On­ly peo­ple he knew he would do things for,” Mo­han said. He ex­pressed hope that the new coun­cil­lor would fo­cus on the is­sues fac­ing the res­i­dents.

 “We have re­al pres­sure for wa­ter. We need bet­ter drainage. Every year peo­ple down here get flood­ed be­cause of the poor drainage,” Mo­han said. 

Fish­er­man Ramesh Ram­nath al­so said he was hap­py elec­tions were called. “The on­ly prob­lem we’re hav­ing here is wa­ter. They ran a line from Scotts Road to Morne Di­a­blo, but it on­ly ran for about a mile. High­er up Morne Di­a­blo gets no wa­ter. We’re get­ting wa­ter twice a month. Right now we don’t have a drop of wa­ter,” he added.

Quinam/Morne Di­a­blo was de­clared va­cant af­ter the death of its UNC coun­cil­lor, Diptee Ram­nath, last De­cem­ber. He had served in the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion for over 30 years.