NACTA: UNC needs to change leadership

THE Opposition UNC will need to change its current leadership and form an alliance with other political parties if it hopes to defeat the PNM in the 2025 general election. Unless both of these things happen, the PNM is likely to retain power from 2025-2030.

These were the findings of the latest North American Caribbean Teachers Association (NACTA) survey, which was released on Friday.

In June after being re-elected as UNC leader in the party's internal elections, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said the party was open to new alliances to remove the PNM.

Persad-Bissessar has pledged to lead the UNC back into government.

The survey interviewed 520 voters randomly to represent the demographics of the population.

According to the survey, NACTA said, "The PNM and UNC are at a statistical dead heat in popular support at 34 per cent. But the UNC trails in projected seats in the 41-seat Parliament."

Despite the PNM's unpopularity with voters (including some of its traditional supporters who want political change), NACTA said the UNC and other political parties opposed to the PNM do not attract voters' interest.

Floating voters, people who support no political party, describe the UNC as a turnoff because they say it is "saddled with too many tainted characters."

NACTA said if the UNC were to transform itself under credible leadership and form an alliance similar to the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) of 1986, it could defeat the PNM in the next general election. In that election, the NAR defeated the PNM 33-3.

The NAR subsequently collapsed as a result of internal political strife and lost to the PNM in the 1991 general election.

NACTA said the survey found that while the UNC has gained one per cent more support from people who supported the PNM in the August 10, 2020 general election "its traditional support has been whittling away."

The survey, NACTA continued, showed people who voted for the UNC in 2020 will not vote for the party in 2025 because they are not attracted to the quality of people in its leadership. In terms of attracting critical floating-voter support to capture key marginal constituencies such as San Fernando West and St Joseph, NACTA said the UNC is unattractive to these voters.

NACTA claimed the PNM has been been gaining ground in the marginal seats of Pointe-a-Pierre, Chaguanas East, Barataria/San Juan and Moruga/Tableland, which are held by the UNC.

"Voters are of the view that all four UNC-held seats are imperilled while none of the four PNM-held marginals is under threat, strengthening the PNM’s hold on government for another term."

UNC founder and former prime minister Basdeo Panday is among the people who voters believe can give the party a chance to win a future general election. Panday has publicly disassociated himself from the UNC, saying it is no longer the party he founded in 1988.

Oropouche East MP and UNC deputy leader Dr Roodal Moonilal and former UNC MPs Dr Fuad Khan and Vasant Bharath are other people who voters believe could restore credibility to the party.

After losing to Persad-Bissessar in the UNC's internal elections in June, Khan decided to retire from active politics, saying he saw no future for the UNC while Persad-Bissessar remains its leader.