UNC move meant to centralise operations

THE EDITOR: The United National Congress (UNC) requests that your newspaper corrects its erroneous reports of March 9 and 11 that the UNC was evicted from Rienzi Complex.

Your first article falsely reported that "The party...was evicted from its Rienzi Complex headquarters" and your second article repeats the falsehood that "the Rienzi Complex became the (UNC’s) headquarters until the party was evicted from there.”

Kindly note the UNC was never evicted from Rienzi Complex. The UNC decided to leave Rienzi Complex because of increased rental demands.

One wonders about Newsday's heightened concern about the party's move to the country's second city, San Fernando, as if this is something odd that needs to be explained. To base two articles on a simple move – both including erroneous reports of eviction – seems rather curious indeed.

The new location at M Rampersad Building has been used for some time by the party. It is a modern, spacious building, as can be seen in photos on the party's Facebook and Instagram pages, with much better parking, security and accessibility.

It has also become the centre of the UNC's very successful Virtual Studios, from where every Monday the Virtual Reports and every Thursday the Pavement Reports are broadcast to the country, and the world. Given the greater need to interact with citizens virtually, it made sense to centralise our operations where our Virtual Studios are.

All the party's moves have been based on purposeful decisions for the UNC's growth and development.

We look forward to the correction in your newspaper, so that these errors do not get misrecorded as "facts" in the historical record.

DR KIRK MEIGHOO

PRO, UNC

Editor’s note: Our statement that the UNC was evicted from Rienzi Complex is based on numerous reports by multiple media houses in July 2016 that the All Trinidad General Workers' Trade Union had given the party until the end of that month to move out.

Party chairman David Lee was reported as responding in a release at that time that the union had said it was unwilling to give the UNC a long-term lease and wished the UNC to leave the premises “without cause.”

Union leader Nirvan Maharaj was reported as telling the media that after an unsuccessful meeting with the party to discuss the proposed rent, “I had no choice but to issue that eviction notice.”