Gail Alexander
The People’s National Movement’s San Fernando West unit has denied that a meeting which PNM candidate Faris Al-Rawi held in Bel Air recently went “bust”.
At Thursday’s UNC “On the Ballot” meeting, Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar claimed Al-Rawi wanted to hold a “cocktail party” and that PNM leader Dr Keith Rowley had planned to hold a “lime” among their campaign plans. She said that was grotesque considering what people were suffering and they (PNM) should do like UNC candidates and go out to the people
On Friday, however, PNM San Fernando West campaign manager Terrence Beepath said the unit had a cottage meeting in Bel Air recently for which 40 invitations were issued. He said 18 people arrived initially and two others did subsequently. It was the day after the latest COVID scare and there was heavy rain, he noted.
“It was pitched to people, in that immediate neighbourhood and wasn’t planned as a very large meeting. We also know the UNC held a similar meeting in Bel Air also at the home of a known activist and only eight people showed up,” he claimed.
Al-Rawi won the seat in 2015 with 10,112 votes - with a lead of 3,310 votes - over UNC’s Razia Ahmed 6,802.
Beepath projected Al-Rawi “would win the seat by a landslide” this time around.
He also claimed UNC’s San Fernando West candidate Sean Sobers hadn’t gained the type of traction the party had expected. “Their party hasn’t been speaking sufficiently enough on what people in San Fernando want to know about and want details on,” Beepath said.
However, UNC’s Kevin Ramnarine, who’s appeared on Sobers’ platform said, “San Fernando West is at the epicenter of the overall national economic depression. That was the case before COVID-19 and it was made worse by COVID-19.
“There’s strong sentiment against the incumbent MP, people feel he’s hardly been seen in the last five years - that’s working in UNC’s favour.’’
Ramnarine also said the PNM appeared to have a low key campaign in the Aranguez part of the St Joseph seat and the El Socorro side of San Juan/Barataria since “... I haven’t seen even a red handkerchief anywhere there...the UNC is poised to win and currently I can say it has more than 21 seats...”