UNC says PNM may lose some corporations 

Opposition Senator Khadijah Ameen.
Opposition Senator Khadijah Ameen.

UNC deputy political leader Khadijah Ameen has expressed confidence that the Opposition party would be able to wrest control of at least one government-controlled regional corporation from the ruling PNM in the forthcoming local government elections.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Ameen said screening of candidates was expected to begin shortly, as the party had received close to 400 applications from potential candidates in all 14 regional and borough corporations. Nominations for local government candidates closed on April 26. Campaign manager for the party’s local government election is Feroze Khan.

She said the party would contest every electoral district in the 14 corporations and several corporations might change hands after the elections. “There are some seats we lost by very close margins in the last local government election. We expect to win those, and you may very well see some corporations changing hands.”

Asked whether she was willing to predict which corporations would undergo a changing of the guard, she unhesitatingly said Sangre Grande, as there was “discontent” there.

“Sangre Grande is one that looks very positive for the UNC. There is a lot of discontent in those areas, including the East-West Corridor.”

The UNC’s next Monday Night Forum is scheduled to take place on May 20 at North Eastern College, Sangre Grande.

Ameen said one of the reasons for the simmering discontent was the ruling administration’s attitude to local government.

“The PNM is not friendly to local government. Even their own local government representatives have been starved of resources. They have not been included in decision-making in terms of running the country, and even among the PNM councillors there is discontent because the PNM has not serviced local government. The PNM has never been friendly to the devolution of power.”

She said that could be seen in central government’s withholding of funding to the corporations for the payment of rents for councillors' offices and for water-trucking services.

“Councillors have received eviction notices because the corporations are not receiving money to pay their rent.

The ongoing water crisis is another example where the allocation for water trucking has been severely cut and even the amount approved in the budget had not been released to allow the regional corporations to service their community."

On Monday's mid-year review, she warned the population to disregard the “mamaguy” she said was expected to take place.“The PNM is on election footing. They have suppressed funding during their time in office and they have attempted to blame the (People's) Partnership for everything, now that we are going into election mode.

"I want to warn citizens not to fall for the mamaguy from the Government.

“They are going to spend the money that was available to them all the time, they are going to spend the money now because it is election, so I hope people do not fall for the mamaguy and they remember the damage that the PNM has done to the economy, to jobs, and to people’s lives.”

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