Senior Reporter
sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar is confident the Star slate will shine brightly in the party’s internal elections. However, she said this internal election saw the lowest level of campaigning.
She was speaking with reporters at the polling station in Debe Secondary School minutes after she voted for her Star Team slate in the UNC national executive elections. “There was some overzealous campaigning in some stations. I am told MP (Rushton) Paray (United Patriots deputy political leader candidate) went into a voting station and refused to leave, basically harassing and intimidating persons in that station,” she told reporters.
Claiming that the matter was raised with the Election Management Committee, she said, “Eventually, he did leave, but he spent a very long time in the station, which is very inappropriate. This election, I’ve seen a level of a kind of campaigning I’ve never seen in any of our internal elections. It’s been—I don’t want to use any bad words—but it has been a very low level of campaigning. We are all UNC at the end of the day; see what happens.” Responding to allegations by MP Dinesh Rambally that supporters of Star Slate had engaged in similar behaviour, she admitted that in Cumuto/Manzanilla, some of the Star Team outside of the station and were asked to move.
“They moved. They did not stay as what happened elsewhere,” she said. Persad-Bissessar said there was also some confusion regarding the voters’ list, but the presiding officer eventually got the master list that both sides agreed to use.
Asked whether she would accept the results if the United Patriots slate won, Persad-Bissessar said she would, but she was confident about her team’s victory. Asked what would be the UL team’s fate going forward, she said they (UL) would have to decide their next step. “Tomorrow (Sunday), I will still be the leader of the UNC. Today we have competition; tomorrow we put on our boots and take on the real enemy. The real enemy is the PNM, and that is where we go next.”
The UNC political leader also anticipated that yesterday’s voter turnout would be higher than in the last internal elections in 2022. Just over 12,000 members voted in the 2022 internal elections, the lowest so far.
Paray says Persad-Bissessar’s allegations bizarre
Mayaro MP and United Patriots (UP) deputy political leader candidate, Rushton Paray, described as “bizarre” the allegations made against him by Persad-Bissessar. Paray was responding via WhatsApp last evening to claims by Persad-Bissessar that he spent three hours in a polling station harassing and intimidating people.
Paray led the UP slate late against Persad-Bissessar’s Star Team in yesterday’s UNC executive leadership elections.
He said, “I have taken note of Mrs Persad-Bissessar’s bizarre comments about my presence at the polling station in Mayaro in today’s internal elections. It is unfortunate that Mrs Persad Bissessar should wrongly mischaracterize my presence at this station, especially as numerous voting irregularities were being registered at the said polling station.”
Paray said it was also ironic that Persad-Bissessar made those comments while standing next to Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal, who was present at a polling station in Oropouche East, “where video footage shows questionable and even illegal behaviour taking place.”
He said he would address “the numerous serious concerns documented by many UNC members” during these elections as soon as the counting ends.”
In an earlier interview with Guardian Media at the Rio Claro Presbyterian Primary School polling station, Paray explained that he spent three hours inside the station due to several voting irregularities. Due to the lengthy delay, he said at least 25 to 40 people left the station.