PNM wins 5-way race for Hollywood

As expected, the PNM's Christopher "Boy Ross" Wright won the Hollywood electoral district in Point Fortin, with 541 votes, easily outnumbering his four opponents.

The victory was no surprise to Wright and many people in the known PNM stronghold.

"This win did not shock me. I am not surprised.

"I have been speaking about doing goodness and actually doing goodness in the community. That speaks for itself. As I told you last week, I do a lot of charity and community work. People know the kind of representation I would bring once elected to the position," Wright told Newsday on Tuesday.

"I know people want proper representation. They want someone who they can talk to, a 'groundsman' – someone who is always on the ground liaising with them, somebody who they know."

A record number of five people – three men and two women – contested the seat in Monday's local government elections.

A few days ago, Wright told Newsday his chance of winning was 1,000 out of 100, and the rest did not stand a chance.

He was ordained about two months ago as a minister with the St Michael Healing School, a Baptist organisation.

Wright recalled that during the pandemic, he organised hamper distributions as well as a soup kitchen.

"While campaigning, many people commended me heavily on the community kitchen initiative. On Saturday, I want to restart that project. I distributed 150-200 boxes of food on Saturdays.

"I will revisit the concerns of the burgesses, like streetlighting and drainage issues," he said.

First-time candidate Keon Taylor represented the National Transformation Alliance (NTA) and got the second-highest number of votes, 169.

Preliminary results showed independent Irvin Felix got 57 votes, first-time candidate Allison La Foucade of the Progressive Empowerment Party (PEP) got 41, and Amber Wharton of the MSJ got 32.

Taylor, who is self-employed, told Newsday that he would continue to help people in whatever way he can.

"People are fed up with the PNM.

"We had the wrong idea that the election this time was about the youths. The PNM pulled out the old people, some in wheelchairs and some blind, to vote. Those were the people who caused the PNM to win.

"We did not have enough machinery to transport people as did the PNM," Taylor said.

He also believed there were too many candidates, saying had the fight been between the PNM and another candidate, the other candidate's chances of winning would have been greater.

Newsday spoke briefly with the MSJ candidate, who said, "All is well. There were no hiccups during the voting process."

The PNM-led Point Fortin Borough Corporation retained not only Hollywood but also the five other electoral districts – Egypt Village, New Village, Cap-de-Ville/ Fanny Village, New Lands/ Mahaica and Techier/Guapo.