By now the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions cam­paign’s pace progress and po­lit­i­cal pyrex­ia can be traced by its mu­sic.

UNC’s theme song for the en­try of leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar at meet­ings is the late Blaxx’s Hulk. The PNM’s mu­sic for Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s en­try at PNM’s Siparia meet­ing was thun­der­ing tas­sa.

Last night’s Pa­lo Seco meet­ing fea­tured Row­ley in an in­for­mal Con­ver­sa­tions with the PM set­ting, de­signed for op­ti­mal in­ter­ac­tion—which PNM now re­quires since bat­tle cries from both sides are as in­for­ma­tive as their mu­sic.

“He knows the lick­ing’s com­ing,” boast­ed Per­sad-Bisses­sar at bat­tle­ground San­gre Grande on Thurs­day.

“He could talk all he wants, the House of Row­ley’s crum­bling,” Jack Warn­er, now UNC front­line, de­clared.

PNM Sen­a­tor Renu­ka Sagram­s­ingh-Sook­lal in Ari­ma, on Wednes­day, pro­nounced, “We’ve seen all kinds of con­coc­tions re­cent­ly; what­ev­er they call it, UNC’s a sink­ing ship! Many may leave us but they’ll re­turn when they re­alise the chaos and con­fu­sion there!”

“Those who donned yel­low jer­seys we know your heart is re­al­ly red! We in­vite you, re­turn home. As Shel­don “Fish” Gar­cia said, this elec­tion may be the most im­por­tant ... it’s im­per­a­tive to vote PNM!” PNM Sen­a­tor Lau­rel Leza­ma-Lee Sing added.

Chang­ing sce­nar­ios for the 1,091,936 elec­torate (a bit more than the 2019 LG elec­torate of 1,079,976).

In­deed, track­ing on Tues­day showed PNM and UNC hold­ing in re­spec­tive west/north and south strong­holds. PNM-con­trolled San Juan where PDP and oth­ers are con­test­ing Barataria shows a keen fight and heav­ier in bat­tle­ground San­gre Grande. Bat­tle Royale cur­rent­ly is in PNM-con­trolled San Fer­nan­do where PNM is work­ing 24/7 in­clud­ing on three mar­gin­al dis­tricts.

What ef­fect the UNC’s of­fen­sive pow­ered by the Warn­er/Gary Grif­fith ac­com­mo­da­tion will yield, ma­te­ri­alis­es ahead. But PNM’s de­fen­sive—dam­age con­trol state­ments—re­flect­ed changed cur­rents.

With the Gov­ern­ment af­fect­ed by un­pop­u­lar­i­ty and “ground” dis­con­nec­tion while man­ag­ing na­tion­al is­sues, crises and dogged op­po­si­tion pur­suit and UNC hit by frag­men­ta­tion, mem­bers’ le­gal mat­ters and lag­ging na­tion­al im­age, their re­spec­tive LG tick­ets are re­in­force­ment: PNM re­cruit­ment of UNC mem­bers, re­sult­ing in UNC’s re­ply of some PP re­turnees.

Af­ter Mon­day’s plat­form, one UNC MP hap­pi­ly de­clared, “So much me­dia was mob­bing the leader (Mon­day) like it was 2010 again!”

Pos­i­tives in­clud­ed the op­tics of the huge gath­er­ing, the an­tic­i­pa­tion of the mid­dle class and East-West cor­ri­dor in­roads via NTA and Warn­er re­spec­tive­ly, and the good-vibes hope of 2010 vic­to­ry.

Along with the con­se­quent po­lit­i­cal “bump” in stocks, how­ev­er, must be con­sid­ered the flip sides.

Cred­i­bil­i­ty af­ter past back-bit­ing about each oth­er from the main per­son­al­i­ties hold­ing hands on Mon­day. PP dis­in­te­gra­tion. Un-new faces. Warn­er’s cur­rent US is­sues, FI­FA past and waned po­lit­i­cal strength. PNM’s claims about Grif­fith. Con­cern from some about the ac­com­mo­da­tion in­clud­ing UNC front­lin­ers. Ef­fect of Warn­er’s is­sues on fledg­ing NTA.

Plus: the irony of two ex-PP na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ters—one fac­ing le­gal mat­ters stand­ing along­side a for­mer po­lice com­mis­sion­er whose mantra is the law.

While Grif­fith’s made it clear Warn­er has no au­thor­i­ty, both, now UNC’s main emis­saries to the mid­dle/un­de­cid­ed/Afro Tri­ni votes, will re­quire el­e­va­tion if UNC wins ar­eas they have worked.

A pos­si­ble coali­tion re­vival was al­so sig­nalled Mon­day—ahead of the ac­com­mo­da­tion meet­ing—via unions’ hint of UNC col­lab­o­ra­tion. Mon­day evening OW­TU branch mem­bers were seen en­dors­ing UNC can­di­dates in bat­tle­ground Mara­bel­la.

UNC of­fi­cials said more may re­turn. Spec­u­la­tion in­cludes for­mer MPs Fazal Karim and Fuad Khan. Ex-Min­is­ter Kevin Ram­nar­ine con­firmed, “I in­tend at­tend­ing some meet­ings be­fore Au­gust 14.”

De­spite Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s caveat to com­ers that UNC loy­al­ists are pri­or­i­ty, she sig­nalled that UNC has THA Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine’s “back”. If his rep­re­sen­ta­tives are on a fu­ture UNC/NTA/Jack/Labour plat­form, it will fur­ther the PP fac­sim­i­le.

But that will be mi­nus NJAC af­ter Tahar­qa Obi­ka went to PNM. And PEP leader Phillip Alexan­der says, “We’ll be no part of UNC or PNM.”

If PNM and UNC are work­ing to­wards win­ning at least nine of the 14 cor­po­ra­tions, it re­mains ahead whether the tight race where PNM and UNC must con­vince un­de­cid­eds plus re­coup lost mem­bers, will have an 8/6  or 9/5 win for one or the oth­er.