Endgame time for UNC

ADDRESSING THOUSANDS of balisier and flag-waving PNM supporters in Arouca, Prime Minister Patrick Manning declared that tomorrow will be endgame for the Opposition UNC and its aging leader Basdeo Panday. Despite the torrential showers which swept the East-West Corridor yesterday, thousands of PNMites were unmoved as they listened to speaker after speaker pound the UNC and predict an overwhelming PNM victory at the polls Manning told party supporters that TT demands honesty and integrity from its leaders and “the UNC have nothing to offer TT, having been exposed during their six years in power as “seekers and fighters for no one but themselves”. He predicted that by tomorrow evening the Rising Sun will be “yet another symbol in the political dustbin of TT. The masquerade is over and it is endgame time,” Manning declared.  The PM went further declaring that Panday refuses to acknowledge that “his political sun had set” and continues to linger in the sugar belt “like an unwanted jumbie”. Manning said that after tomorrow the UNC would “crumble and break like dry biscuit” and “there will be mutiny in the Rienzi”.

The PM said Panday was hypocritical to accuse the PNM of corruption when under his watch, UNC supporters filled their pockets and other paraphernalia with taxpayers’ money. Manning assured the assembled PNMites that unlike other parties, the PNM had stood the test of time for over 50 years and must be strong “for the nation to be strong”. The PM listed several of his government’s achievements and hinted at others to come including eight new schools in September, five new highways on the way and unleashing the nation’s “huge agricultural potential” following the restructuring of Caroni (1975) Limited. Health Minister Colm Imbert said 150 Cuban and UNDP doctors will be in TT by year’s end and despite UNC attempts to influence Independent Senators, the amended Medical Board Act was passed in the Senate and this will allow licences to be granted to these doctors. Imbert said it was Panday as PM who reneged on a promise to increase doctors’ salaries which caused all the trouble in the health sector. He also revealed a chronic disease programme for persons under 16 will be in place by October. Legal Affairs Minister Camille Robinson-Regis called upon former ministers Ganga Singh and Kamla Persad-Bissessar to account for numerous corruption scandals under their watch and stop criticising PNM ministers. National Security Minister Howard Chin Lee updated supporters on new vehicles now being used by security forces to battle crime in Laventille/Morvant while Local Government Minister Jarrette Narine called on UNC “bombshell candidate” Dr Anirudh Mahabir “to sign the UNC’s death certificate. Other speakers included Ministers Christine Sahadeo, Eddie Hart and Martin Joseph.