Panday alleges PNM spent $400M to win 14 UNC seats

THE PEOPLE’S NATIONAL MOVEMENT plundered the Treasury to the extent of $400 million to win the Local Government Elections on Monday night. By so doing they won 14 seats that were previously held by the United National Congress and “I wonder how long this feeding frenzy would last?” asked Basdeo Panday, leader of the UNC.

He was addressing a 300-strong crowd of UNC activists around 11.00 pm after the Local Government Elections results were known at Rienzi Complex, Mc Bean, Couva. He told members: “Go ahead and celebrate because all of this will soon come to an end and we will have to take over the government.” Before Panday addressed  the small crowd, he spoke to the media giving them reasons why the UNC lost and stating categorically that he was prepared to go as leader having reached the age when he should be considering retirement  from active politics. At that time the atmosphere at the complex was a picture of gloom until the arrival of Allan “Taxi” Seepersad, who was the victorious UNC candidate for the electoral district of Felicity/Calcutta/Mc Bean, making a dramatic entrance with a tassa-beating group and flag-waving supporters dancing along the street. Trickling in were Kelvin Ramnath (MP Couva South), Chandresh Sharma (MP for Fyzabad), Kamla Persad-Bissessar (MP for Siparia), Senator Sadiq Baksh, as well as Boya Sahadeo and Paras Ramoutar, who were victorious in the Local Government Elections for the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation. Then Panday decided to address the meeting before departing for home, and said, “You have nothing to be ashamed about by the result of the Local Government Elections. You have won a victory which you will only realise down the road.”

Panday pointed out that in the 1999 Local Government Elections, the PNM had 68 seats and the UNC 58, and now they are in control of 82 seats against the UNC’s 44. “What they have done is to spend $400 million to win 14 of our seats and that means that they would have to continue to spend $ 30 million for every other UNC seat if they want to take all,” Panday said. “This feeding frenzy cannot continue and it is only a matter of time before the UNC takes over,” Panday stressed. He said, “After spending $400 million, I expected that they would have taken all the seats, but that was not to be and I am glad that you are here celebrating our performance.” He then asked, “How long will they continue this feeding frenzy?  What we know is that they cannot continue like that and the time is coming when they bound to collapse and we have got to be prepared to take over.” He congratulated Chandresh Sharma for co-ordinating the Local Government Elections and said that “he and his team had done a tremendous job to prevent the PNM from running away with a landslide victory, which they were hoping to achieve.” He said that there was no vacuum in the country for another political party to come into existence as long as the UNC and the PNM were existing. “Anybody who thinks he could come forward and form another political party is only fooling himself,” Panday said, “take that and put it into your back pocket and go home and smoke it. “We have a struggle ahead which is something bigger than anyone of us could comprehend and that is to unite the people of Trinidad and Tobago.  “Nothing can stop us from continuing this struggle and it is only a matter of time before this is achieved.”