Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

For the past three months, the UNC has been con­fi­den­tial­ly com­mu­ni­cat­ing to some coun­cil­lors and al­der­men that they are not in favourable po­si­tions to be se­lect­ed to re­turn to their re­spec­tive elec­toral seats due to var­i­ous rea­sons, says par­ty of­fi­cials.

This, as the lo­cal gov­ern­ment land­scape con­tin­ues sim­mer­ing ahead of the an­nounce­ment of an elec­tion date, which is ex­pect­ed im­mi­nent­ly.

Af­ter the de­par­tures of some coun­cil­lors from the UNC to the PNM, top UNC of­fi­cials spoke on the mat­ter. Some UNC mem­bers–in­clud­ing coun­cil­lors Shel­don Gar­cia and Samuel Sankar–re­signed from UNC in the last month and have gone to the PNM. Both re­ceived a warm wel­come from the PNM at its re­cent Mal­abar meet­ing last week.

But top ex­ec­u­tive UNC of­fi­cials said yes­ter­day, “For the past three months, the UNC has been con­fi­den­tial­ly com­mu­ni­cat­ing to some coun­cil­lors and al­der­men that they were not in a favourable po­si­tion to be se­lect­ed to re­turn to their re­spec­tive elec­toral seats be­cause of var­i­ous rea­sons.”

Ex­act­ly what?

They replied, “This was done to avoid any pub­lic em­bar­rass­ment or hurt be­ing in­flict­ed on per­sons who would not be re­s­e­lect­ed. The UNC can­not help it if they, know­ing of their fu­ture non-se­lec­tion, chose to dupe Row­ley and the PNM in­to giv­ing them in­cen­tives to ap­pear in the PNM. If Row­ley and the PNM choose to take bas­ket, so be it. They did it be­fore with Col­in Par­tap, Gyp­sy and oth­ers and lost.

“The sad thing is that loy­al, hard­work­ing PNM peo­ple are shunt­ed aside for peo­ple whom the UNC asked to not reap­ply. This is why the UNC is pro­mot­ing from with­in our ranks and not par­tic­i­pat­ing in poach­ing PNM or oth­er par­ties.”

Par­ty of­fi­cials added, “We did enough of that when in gov­ern­ment and it did not help us but in­stead, it hurt our loy­al mem­bers. If a per­son can­not be loy­al to his or her own fam­i­ly/par­ty, then he will not be loy­al to a fam­i­ly/par­ty that he or she was pre­vi­ous­ly against. It is what it is and life goes on. We have the peo­ple’s busi­ness to do and that’s our for­ward fo­cus. Not who’s leav­ing, we have plen­ty com­ing to us.”

Both PNM and UNC are screen­ing nom­i­nees.

Yes­ter­day, the UNC screened for Cou­va and Ch­agua­nas and on Tues­day, will screen peo­ple for Princes Town and Ma­yaro.

PNM Kaveesh gets death threats

The PNM yes­ter­day screened for Ari­ma and San­gre Grande. To­day, the PNM screens for Tu­na­puna. To­mor­row and Tues­day re­spec­tive­ly, nom­i­nees will be screened for San Juan and Port-of-Spain and then lat­er, Diego Mar­tin.

Mean­while, for­mer UNC mem­ber Kaveesh Siew­di­al—now with the PNM—has re­port­ed to po­lice that he re­ceived death threats.

At the PNM’s San Fer­nan­do meet­ing over a week ago, Siew­di­al was wel­comed by PNM leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley.

Yes­ter­day, Siew­di­al con­firmed that he has re­ceived death threats.

“It’s been re­port­ed to the po­lice and it’s be­ing in­ves­ti­gat­ed. There­fore, I’d rather not say more on this mat­ter,” Siew­di­al added.

“But yes, I’d con­tin­ue cam­paign­ing. The work will not stop be­cause of the de­trac­tors and their ac­tions.”

Sources said the threats were “very, very” re­cent.