UNC's 104 not enough

THE EDITOR: Local government elections are due around November and the general elections next year. The UNC has tried but failed to get enough members to even collect nomination forms to fight these elections.

Political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar recently made a national call for people to collect nomination forms from the UNC head office. Even after a national advertising campaign with both traditional and digital media, only 104 collected nomination forms, according to media reports. The 104 comprised 84 for local elections and 20 for general elections.

There are 131 electoral districts for local government elections and therefore UNC only attracting 84 people to collect nomination forms is not a good sign. This is a 30-year-old political party which has seen the corridors of power and currently sits as the Opposition. Can the UNC really fight the upcoming elections alone with these less than adequate numbers?

Only 20 people collected UNC nomination forms for general elections and this figure includes incumbents and new candidates. The general elections are next year but 20 nominations for 41 seats is embarrassing to say the least.

For an effective screening process, each seat should have a minimum of three nominations or prospective candidates. The UNC therefore has to do much more to become attractive to their own members, as a start, if they hope to gain the confidence of the electorate.

While in opposition, Dr Rowley made the general elections call in 2015, for young people to come forward and take responsibility for the future of their country. Hundreds of nomination forms were collected. After constituency screenings, over 100 candidates were screened at the national level. At the last local government elections call in 2016, the PNM screened over 300 candidates.

The PNM made no boast of these figures because this was the standard level of interest by members. The PNM remains the only political party to contest every seat in every election since its inception.

For the UNC to offer members of the respective electoral districts their best representation they need a much wider pool of prospective candidates. The electorate will continue to look on as the country comes closer to local and general elections.

Ronald Huggins, St Joseph

Comments

"UNC's 104 not enough"

More in this section