NAR undeterred by THA results

NAR leader Lennox Sankersingh said the party did not feel set back by the PNM landslide in the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) election, but instead felt spurred on to work even harder for future elections. He made his remarks to Newsday yesterday saying the party still had to do a full analysis of the results. Sankersingh said, “We have to take all things in stride. Politics is a process.” He said everyone knew of the difficulties in putting a team together to represent all the non-PNM forces in Tobago. “There were only two political platforms in Tobago — PNM and persons who were outside of the PNM.”

Sankersingh noted the apparently low turnout of voters in the election which he estimated at 55 percent. “The NAR and DAC and non-PNM forces in Tobago will have to begin to work together to rebuild.” Asked if this was truly feasible, he said, “It’s definitely feasible and possible. It depends on the will of the ones involved and their political and managerial skills.” So what did the results mean for the NAR in Trinidad and Tobago? “We have to prepare for the Local Government election in July 2006 and the General Election due in 2007.” Sankersingh said it was hard to put up a fight against the PNM unless all the groups in society come together as they had done in 1986. That is still our principal aim.

‘The results in Tobago will spur us on to work even harder to achieve this aim.” Did he plan to meet DAC leader, Hochoy Charles?
He replied he would soon meet the NAR Tobago executive first. “We want to build bridges with the DAC and bring all groups together.” He agreed to the idea that the country needs reform of its election laws and campaign finance laws. He noted that it was not easy for small parties to pay $2,000 as a deposit for each candidate in the THA election. “Transparency International initiated some discussion on law reform and had held a seminar where they brought down experts from abroad. They had pointed out the gross unfairness, especially by parties controlling the State purse strings. Something has to be done because it is very, very unfair.”