An­drea Perez-Sobers

Se­nior Re­porter

an­drea.perez-sobers@guardian.co.tt

Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty (PEP) po­lit­i­cal leader Phillip Alexan­der said last night that his po­lit­i­cal body was now qual­i­fied to be con­sid­ered as T&T’s third par­ty, fol­low­ing its per­for­mance in yes­ter­day’s Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tion.

This de­spite the fact that the PEP did not come close to win­ning any of the 141 lo­cal gov­ern­ment dis­tricts that were up for grabs in the elec­tion.

The mood at the par­ty’s head­quar­ters at Quad Build­ing, Park Street, Port-of-Spain, start­ed hope­ful last night but quick­ly turned to dis­ap­point­ment when the num­bers start­ed trick­ling in just be­fore eight o’clock.

Short­ly be­fore 10.15 pm, Alexan­der called a news con­fer­ence with just a hand­ful of sup­port­ers left at the head­quar­ters.

Alexan­der said on­ly 47 can­di­dates con­test­ed the elec­tion and the par­ty was now putting its fo­cus was on Gen­er­al Elec­tions in 2025 by plac­ing shad­ow rep­re­sen­ta­tives on the ground in var­i­ous com­mu­ni­ties.

How­ev­er, he said on­ly 30 per cent of the pop­u­la­tion vot­ed, so there was no room for PEP to make in­roads.

“All of the po­lit­i­cal par­ties shared 30 per cent of the vote. Where is the rest of the coun­try? I was dis­ap­point­ed that we did not get the full 141 can­di­dates. We need to de­vel­op a cul­ture of po­lit­i­cal re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. We need to meet peo­ple to un­der­stand that the vot­er owns the coun­try,” Alexan­der said.

He told the sup­port­ers that the PEP aims to build a strong and vi­able al­ter­na­tive to the pol­i­tics of race and cor­rup­tion.

“I think that in 2025, the PEP is go­ing to make a sig­nif­i­cant im­pact on the way this coun­try is gov­erned. Oth­er po­lit­i­cal par­ties have lost ground and their rep­u­ta­tion. The PEP has stayed true to our call. We are now es­tab­lished as the third-largest par­ty in the coun­try and there is no oth­er than the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) and the PEP mov­ing to­wards the gen­er­al elec­tion,” he boast­ed.

When asked by Guardian Me­dia if he ex­pects some of the is­sues raised by peo­ple dur­ing the cam­paign­ing to be ad­dressed by the PNM and UNC, Alexan­der said “No.”

“We would still have no roads, no wa­ter, no jobs. On­ly busi­ness­peo­ple would still be able to ob­tain for­eign ex­change. We do not have a T&T that runs for every creed and race. We need peo­ple to say that they want rep­re­sen­ta­tion and must go be­yond red and yel­low,” the po­lit­i­cal leader lament­ed.

He added that for this elec­tion, the par­ty teamed up with the Re-Unit­ed Farm­ers’ Al­liance, but said for the gen­er­al elec­tions the mem­bers will now be in­te­grat­ed un­der one um­brel­la of the PEP.

The group has been ac­tive for over four years and fo­cus­es on sup­port­ing food crop farm­ers and em­ploy­ees of Ca­roni 1975 Lim­it­ed.

Guardian Me­dia spoke to a few sup­port­ers, who wished not to be named, who ex­pressed shock by the re­sults as they ex­pect­ed to win at least two seats.

“From the cam­paign­ing we did in Port-of-Spain and Diego Mar­tin dis­tricts and the sup­port the par­ty got, we ex­pect­ed to ei­ther gain seats or in­roads. Peo­ple are afraid of change and still have this one set mind from Dr Er­ic Williams' days,” the sup­port­ers be­moaned.