RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has dis­missed spec­u­la­tion that the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) is re­serv­ing the St Au­gus­tine seat for Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) leader Prakash Ra­mad­har, say­ing screen­ing for the con­stituen­cy has al­ready been closed.

Speak­ing to re­porters af­ter the fu­ner­al of na­tion­al award re­cip­i­ent Prem­c­hand Sookoo yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar con­firmed that five con­stituen­cies will be screened to­day.

When asked about the sta­tus of St Au­gus­tine, where in­cum­bent MP Khadi­jah Ameen was screened, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the process was com­plete.

“Prakash has not ap­plied for a seat, and he is not a mem­ber of the UNC. He has not filed a nom­i­na­tion. Khadi­jah Ameen has filed for St Au­gus­tine, screen­ing for that seat is closed, and it re­mains for us now to name the can­di­date, which we will do very short­ly,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

She em­pha­sised that the screen­ing com­mit­tee was fo­cused on se­lect­ing can­di­dates who would best serve the peo­ple.

Ra­mad­har has ex­pe­ri­enced in­ter­nal con­flicts with­in his par­ty, pri­mar­i­ly due to dis­agree­ments over the par­ty’s di­rec­tion and its re­la­tion­ship with the UNC. The COP, ini­tial­ly formed as an al­ter­na­tive to the UNC and the PNM be­came a key mem­ber of the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship coali­tion gov­ern­ment led by Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar from 2010 to 2015 where Ra­mad­har served as Le­gal Af­fairs Min­is­ter.

Al­so asked if any seat had been promised to Oil­field Work­ers’ Trade Union (OW­TU) pres­i­dent gen­er­al An­cel Ro­get, she said he was not seek­ing a can­di­da­cy but plans to sup­port oth­ers.

“Mr Ro­get has no in­ter­est in con­test­ing a seat, but there are peo­ple he is will­ing to put for­ward, which we are will­ing to con­sid­er. He has no wish to ac­tu­al­ly con­test a seat. He is very vest­ed in his job as a trade union­ist, and we con­grat­u­lat­ed him yes­ter­day for win­ning again as pres­i­dent gen­er­al of his union,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar not­ed that the UNC was work­ing with its coali­tion part­ners to fi­nalise se­lec­tions.

“We need to see the whole ta­ble to choose the best. We may have named a few here and there, but with new can­di­dates in the coali­tion com­ing for­ward, we have to do due dili­gence and take the time to choose those best suit­ed for gov­er­nance,” she said.

“We have to put to­geth­er a team not just to win a seat but for bet­ter gov­er­nance. We have a lot of good peo­ple com­ing for­ward, and we have to make the best de­ci­sion. We in­tend to com­plete our screen­ing next week. Soon, you will be hear­ing the full list of can­di­dates.”

She al­so en­cour­aged sup­port­ers to at­tend to­day’s screen­ing ex­er­cise.

“We have a pop­u­lar song, a remix, and we’re invit­ing every­one for 4 pm for a UNC Fab­u­lous Fri­day,” she said.

When asked about po­lit­i­cal leader of the Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance Gary Grif­fith’s re­cent state­ments that she will re­main in op­po­si­tion, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she was un­con­cerned.

“I wish Mr Grif­fith good luck. I have no cares or fears. I am con­fi­dent about the path­way we are tak­ing, and we will go for­ward in the Gov­ern­ment,” she said.

The UNC has part­nered with the Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty (PEP) led by Phillip Alexan­der and Laven­tille Out-Reach for Ver­ti­cal En­rich­ment (LOVE) led by Lennox Smith, with back­ing from sev­er­al unions. How­ev­er, Per­sad-Bisses­sar has stat­ed she will not align with Grif­fith, ac­cus­ing him of be­ing too dis­re­spect­ful to her ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers.