Gail Alexan­der

For­mer UNC Cu­mu­to Man­zanil­la MP Chris­tine Newal­lo-Ho­sein, who’s now the Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance’s (NTA) south-east co-or­di­na­tor, doesn’t be­lieve the par­ty will split Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress votes in her for­mer con­stituen­cy - and she’s re­ferred to her new part as the “bridge con­stituen­cy.”

On whether Newal­lo-Ho­sein sanc­tions NTA and UNC join­ing up, she said, “This is ex­act­ly what a bridge does ...”

Newal­lo-Ho­sein was an­nounced re­cent­ly as south-east co-or­di­na­tor on the team of one­time Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship min­is­ter Gary Grif­fith’s NTA.

Newal­lo-Ho­sein start­ed in pol­i­tics in 2007, un­suc­cess­ful­ly con­test­ing Tu­na­puna for UNC. She was a Sen­a­tor and Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment (2010-2015) and re­placed Collin Par­tap as UNC’s Cu­mu­to-Man­zanil­la MP from 2015-2020. For the 2020 gen­er­al elec­tions, Newal­lo-Ho­sein wasn’t cho­sen by the lead­er­ship and was re­placed by Dr Rai Rag­bir.

Asked if she didn’t think the NTA would split votes and if the NTA and oth­ers will heed the UNC’s uni­ty call and all join up, Newal­lo-Ho­sein said, “The state of af­fairs in our beloved na­tion is the con­cern of every cit­i­zen. Af­ter 60 years of In­de­pen­dence, we still don’t have ac­count­abil­i­ty from our lead­ers; nei­ther do we have man­age­ment and mea­sure­ment of per­for­mance.

“I be­lieve that un­der the as­tute lead­er­ship of Gary Grif­fith, we can and will change this ar­cha­ic sys­tem of gov­er­nance. I be­lieve be­cause I’ve had the dis­tinct plea­sure of work­ing along­side Mr Grif­fith, who stood up for what he be­lieved in. He’s a no-non­sense per­son yet com­pas­sion­ate, a man who ho­n­ours his word - rare qual­i­ty in our lead­ers.”

Newal­lo-Ho­sein doesn’t be­lieve the NTA’s pres­ence will split UNC votes.

“NTA isn’t about split­ting votes. What I be­lieve is the pop­u­la­tion will de­mand change and in time, ar­tic­u­late ex­act­ly what they see is the so­lu­tion. This is where the bridge con­stituen­cy be­comes a vi­able ve­hi­cle for change of mind­set; in par­tic­u­lar the West­min­ster sys­tem that has failed us as a na­tion.”

On whether she sanc­tions the NTA and UNC join­ing up, she said, “This is ex­act­ly what a bridge does: it cross­es over ob­sta­cles and bar­ri­ers to join to­geth­er and bridge gaps. Above all - we need each oth­er! I’ve heard lead­ers re­peat­ed­ly say we can do this alone. We’re nev­er alone. That lev­el of think­ing will be re­ject­ed by the very au courant pop­u­lace. We’re in this to­geth­er.”

Her suc­ces­sor, MP Rag­bir, com­ment­ing on his pre­de­ces­sor’s NTA align­ment, said, “Every­one has a right to choose the par­ty they wish to be­long to. At the end of the day what­ev­er you do is to im­prove lives - so I wish her well. How­ev­er, the UNC’s the of­fi­cial Op­po­si­tion; there­fore, the next gov­ern­ment.”

Asked whether Newal­lo-Ho­sein’s pres­ence was hint of a com­ing NTA-UNC “link,”, Rag­bir said such mat­ters will be guid­ed by UNC’s po­lit­i­cal leader “... in con­sul­ta­tion with all MPs ... on­ly the Op­po­si­tion Leader can say.”

UNC deputy lead­ers Roodal Mooni­lal and David Lee didn’t re­spond to queries on Newal­lo-Ho­sein’s NTA role and if this was pos­i­tive for uni­ty of op­po­si­tion forces.

UNC deputy leader Jear­lean John was asked about that and whether Newal­lo-Ho­sein’s pres­ence might split UNC votes, as she was a strong UNC MP.

John said, “UNC’s work­ing very hard - to the Prime Min­is­ter’s an­noy­ance- in prepar­ing it­self for any elec­tion. In this T&T democ­ra­cy, any­one can choose to join any or­gan­i­sa­tion. The seat ref­er­enced is a very strong UNC seat that we nev­er take for grant­ed, but we have no doubt with UNC’s mes­sages and proven track record of de­liv­ery com­bined with an ex­cep­tion­al can­di­date, UNC will pre­vail.”

Mean­while, Newal­lo-Ho­sein’s for­mer Cu­mu­to-Man­zanil­la sup­port­ers dis­cussed her move.

One man told the T&T Guardian there “may be some sur­pris­es ahead” (with NTA). An­oth­er said they’d sup­port her and link with the NTA if a good Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment or gen­er­al elec­tion can­di­date arose.

They added that they had no prob­lems with a uni­ty thrust with UNC and oth­er par­ties, but stressed UNC’s lead­er­ship must change, as there are still rep­re­sen­ta­tion prob­lems in this area due to UNC’s de­ci­sions for the last elec­tion.

For­mer PP Min­is­ter Stephen Cadiz wouldn’t com­ment on Newal­lo-Ho­sein’s move but said she was a good per­son. How­ev­er, he said the busi­ness of form­ing a par­ty just to beat PNM or UNC isn’t about gov­er­nance.

“I’d like to know what bet­ter, peo­ple are propos­ing. If you’re propos­ing the same gov­er­nance sys­tem we had for 60 years - that’s a com­plete waste of time. I want to see what they’ll pro­pose re­gard­ing a sys­tem of gov­er­nance that’ll ben­e­fit peo­ple,” Cadiz said.