Jesse Ramdeo    

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

Fol­low­ing vic­to­ry in Mon­day’s Gen­er­al Elec­tion, two new­ly elect­ed MPs, who won their seats un­der the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress, say they have al­ready set their sights on ad­dress­ing the needs of their con­stituents.

First-time MP-elect, Phillip Watts, who won the La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro con­stituen­cy with more than 2,000 votes than the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s Fos­ter Cum­mings, said he in­tends to be very ac­ces­si­ble to con­stituents.

He as­sured them they would nev­er feel for­got­ten.

“I worked in that con­stituen­cy as the chair­man for the PNM. I was the cam­paign man­ag­er for Max­ie Cuffie and Fos­ter Cum­mings in 2020, I live in the com­mu­ni­ty and I un­der­stand the con­stituen­cy in­side out. The mo­ment Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar an­nounced me as the can­di­date, I knew that was the end of Fos­ter.”

Watts said he will be plac­ing em­pha­sis on the area’s youth dur­ing his tenure.

“When I walked the con­stituen­cy, many peo­ple com­plained about not see­ing Mr Cum­mings. The news I got was that there were about 700 peo­ple on the list to see him. I will be there for them and I’m look­ing for­ward to work­ing with the youth in the con­stituen­cy. They will be my fo­cus.”

Tu­na­puna MP-elect Roger Alexan­der told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day that im­prove­ments in the coun­try’s arms of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty will be on the hori­zon. Alexan­der, who re­tired as a ca­reer po­lice­man, said se­cu­ri­ty will be a ma­jor fo­cus for him.

“It is a good day for the po­lice ser­vice, it’s a good day for the de­fence force, it’s a good day for the prison of­fi­cers, for pris­on­ers. It’s a good day for every­body in Trinidad and To­ba­go, young, old, the weak and strong,” he de­clared.

Alexan­der, who took the Tu­na­puna con­stituen­cy away from the PNM’s Es­mond Forde, who had been MP for ten years, in­di­cat­ed that com­mu­ni­ty build­ing will form the cor­ner­stone of his rep­re­sen­ta­tion. Asked whether he was sur­prised by the out­come of the poll, he said there were ad­just­ments to the po­lit­i­cal land­scape caused by changes in po­lit­i­cal per­spec­tive and be­hav­iours.

“As a man of the ground, Trinidad and To­ba­go has moved away from tra­di­tion. The time has come for us as a na­tion to get to­geth­er and stop see­ing colours and race.”