NAR not banking on UNC alliance

Outgoing NAR political leader Lennox Sankersingh said that while the party is always open to discussions with other political entities about cooperation, no decision has been taken about forming an alliance with the UNC, based on the outcome of today’s elections.

Sankersingh reiterated that the NAR has always maintained that forces opposed to the ruling PNM stood a better chance of defeating the PNM at the polls if they were united.

The NAR and UNC have had a flawed political alliance since the two parties joined forces in 1995 to replace the PNM as the government. The UNC has repeatedly condemned former NAR leader Arthur NR Robinson, who was elevated to the Presidency during the UNC’s period in office, for appointing Patrick Manning as Prime Minister on December 24, 2001 after that year’s elections ended in a historic 18-18 deadlock.

NAR Tobago chairman Christo Gift said no discussion about an alliance with the UNC has taken place to date with the Tobago arm of the party. Gift was critical of the NAR’s central executive in Trinidad deciding to form an alliance with the UNC against the PNM in the 2003 Local Government Elections. The PNM convincingly won those elections, made inroads into several UNC strongholds and none of the NAR’s candidates won a seat.

Gift said people seemed to believe that the NAR was just waiting to associate with another political entity in order to become "somebody" and nothing could be further from the truth. He added that the fact that the UNC was holding its national executive elections today was "inconsequential" in the grand scheme of things. Gift also said the NAR Tobago’s arm has not elected a new political leader to replace Cecil Caruth who defected to Hochoy Charles’ DAC during the January 17 Tobago House of Assembly elections campaign. The PNM won those elections by an 11 to one margin.

The NAR is scheduled to hold its national executive elections on October 23 and one of the contenders for the political leader post is incumbent party deputy leader Dr Carson Charles. A former NAR works and transport minister, Charles was a former NAR political leader, a member of the UNC for a brief period and unsuccessfully contested the Arima seat on a UNC ticket in the 2000 general elections.

The NAR’s national executive meets today at its Victoria Square headquarters in Port-of-Spain at 1 pm to discuss the measures outlined by Prime Minister Patrick Manning in the 2005/2006 Budget in Parliament last Wednesday. Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday will begin tomorrow’s Budget debate in the House of Representatives at 10 am.