NTA election preparations in high gear

NATIONAL Transformation Alliance (NTA) political leader Gary Griffith has said the party's preparations for the next general election, due in 2025, are moving apace.

He added that the NTA's preparations are being made alongside those of its political partner, the Opposition UNC.

The NTA and UNC fought the local government elections in August as a coalition, contesting 31 and 110 districts respectively. Under that arrangement, neither party fielded candidates in the same district.

Griffith and Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bisssessar said after those elections, the NTA-UNC coalition would continue.

Griffith said, "If something is working, you don't need to fix it."

As part of the NTA's general election preparations, he continued, "We have now opened up for persons who will be interested to be candidates in all 41 constituencies.

"What we are also doing is establishing our empowerment committees for every constituency."

These committees will function in a similar way to constituency executive bodies and do groundwork for the NTA in the respective constituencies ahead of the election.

Griffith agreed with Persad-Bissessar that the results of the local government elections showed that defeat for the PNM in the next general election is certain.

"The writing is on the wall."

Speaking at a UNC public meeting in Couva on November 21, Persad-Bissessar said the UNC will contest all 41 constituencies in 2025.

“As we move into an election year, I serve notice tonight, the UNC will open nominations for every single constituency.”

She told party supporters, “If you name man or woman, you are free to put your nomination in.

“Next year is an election year, and we must start off on a strong footing. Let us go forward to bring back glory, to rescue Trinidad and Tobago, to save TT, to bring back safety and security.”

On Saturday, UNC officials said they had no information on anyone submitting their names to be considered as general election candidates as yet.

One official said, “It’s too early.”

A second official said, “I suspect people will pursue when a deadline (for nominations) is identified.”

The UNC has only contested the 39 constituencies in Trinidad, but not the two Tobago constituencies, in general elections.

When Persad-Bissessar spoke last month, she gave no hint as to how many of the UNC’s 19 incumbent MPs would be standing for re-election in 2025.

She also gave no indication as to how many of the 41 constituencies would be contested by its political partner, the NTA.

Sources said closer to the election, the parties will decide which constituencies they will contest. The strategy will be the same as for the local government elections, with only one of the two parties fielding a candidate in any given constituency.

UNC supporters will be asked to vote for NTA candidates in constituencies where there is no UNC candidate. Similarly, NTA supporters will vote for UNC candidates in constituencies where their party has no candidate.

Last month, Persad-Bissessar reiterated that a UNC win in 2025 was inevitable, based on the results of the local government elections in August, which ended in a 7-7 tie between the PNM and UNC. The UNC won seats, but the NTA won none.

Those elections saw a 30.3 per cent voter turnout in 141 local government electoral districts. Approximately 1,078,651 people were eligible to vote.

The UNC/NTA coalition won the popular vote, with 173,961 votes to the PNM’s 130,868.

Persad-Bissessar said based on these statistics, the UNC would have won all the marginal seats in a general election.

The PNM won the last general election in August 2020 by 22-19.