The slate led by Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray moved in­to Wood­land yes­ter­day evening to gath­er sup­port ahead of the June 15 in­ter­nal UNC elec­tions. But a se­nior UNC mem­ber has dis­missed it as a “meet­ing in a bar.”

The South Oropouche River­ine Flood Ac­tion Group, led by Ed­ward Mood­ie, has al­ready thrown its sup­port be­hind Paray and his team. In a voice mes­sage to res­i­dents of the Wood­land Flood Ac­tion Group, Mood­ie claimed that res­i­dents have suf­fered for nine years un­der the PNM-led Dr Kei­th Row­ley gov­ern­ment.

“The UNC, led by Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, does not have what it takes to fight the PNM. Kam­la has de­cid­ed to do noth­ing for the peo­ple, say­ing the PNM is in pow­er, but she could do so much for you if she want­ed. In­stead, you are left to die and drown in the floods,” Mood­ie said. He added, “It is time to change the team of in­com­pe­tent MPs and ex­ec­u­tives.”

Mood­ie al­so crit­i­cised Oropouche West MP Dave Tan­coo. “When was the last time you saw your MP, and what has he done for your com­mu­ni­ty in the last nine years? Kam­la and her ex­ec­u­tives can­not win the next elec­tion. Can you imag­ine what will hap­pen to you un­der the PNM?” Mood­ie asked.

When con­tact­ed, Mood­ie claimed that Per­sad-Bisses­sar nev­er vis­it­ed the flood-rav­aged area since 2017 to meet with peo­ple. Asked whether he planned to at­tend yes­ter­day’s meet­ing be­ing held by Paray, Ani­ta Haynes-Al­leyne, Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly and Rod­ney Charles, Tan­coo said: “This meet­ing, be­ing held in a bar, is be­ing held by per­sons en­gaged in mis­rep­re­sent­ing the truth, char­ac­ter as­sas­si­na­tion and mis­in­for­ma­tion. I do not con­done that kind of ac­tiv­i­ty.” The meet­ing was be­ing held at D’Long Stretch Restau­rant.

He added: “It is omi­nous that as­pi­rants to UNC lead­er­ship would join with non-UNC mem­bers, in­clud­ing known PNM sup­port­ers, to ex­e­cute vile and un­truth­ful per­son­al at­tacks on UNC of­fi­cials and mis­lead UNC mem­bers by echo­ing PNM pro­pa­gan­da.”

Tan­coo said over the decades, he had wit­nessed “many am­bi­tious per­sons try to gain con­trol of our great par­ty by dis­hon­ourable means.”

Mean­while, Paray is said to have held talks with WASA of­fi­cials on Fri­day at 11 am at his of­fice on Grant Street Junc­tion, Rio Claro. Ma­yaro/Rio Claro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Chair­man Ray­mond Co­zi­er and all sev­en coun­cil­lors were ex­pect­ed to at­tend but did not. The lone PNM coun­cil­lor, Ryan Stew­art, who rep­re­sents Ma­yaro North, was present. The source al­so said the on­ly UNC coun­cil­lor, who ex­plained her ab­sence was Charleen Moona, coun­cil­lor for Biche. The source said Moona asked Paray to raise two is­sues re­gard­ing WASA truck­ing ser­vices and low wa­ter pres­sure in her area.