Tunapuna voters okay with UNC win

VOTERS in the Tunapuna constituency were not surprised by the UNC's win over the PNM in the April 28 general election.

Several residents on the Eastern Main Road, between Fairley Street and Tunapuna Road, shared this view with Newsday on April 29. Most did not want to give their names, and in place of this Newsday took a description of them.

Keston Simon (African male in his forties) said, "That was great last night. The change is what we want. We want a better community."

After two terms, the PNM's Esmond Forde lost to former senior superintendent Roger Alexander of the UNC.

Simon claimed the PNM had "done nothing" for the people during its ten-year tenure.

"Now we are giving Aunty Kamla a chance to see what she could really do for us," he said of Prime Minister-elect Kamla Persad-Bissessar. "She has five years to prove to us what she could do for us what Rowley didn't do. That is what we want – a change for all the youths. All the youths are just liming on the blocks, no jobs, nothing. The youths need something.

"I'll say again, I am glad Aunty Kamla win. She has to prove herself because she is asking for a chance, so let us she what she is going to do with it."

Newsday asked if he thought the UNC could keep its many promises.

He replied, "Well I believe in giving everybody a chance to prove themselves."

He said the PNM had got a chance but failed.

"UNC has five years and if within that time they do not prove themselves, we will give another party a chance.

"We want help, we want love, we want things to come back to the way it was. Aunty Kamla said she is bring it back and we are giving her a chance."

Asked for his advice to the PNM, he said the party should not make promises and fail to keep them.

"You know why everybody switch to UNC? You see that 'duck' that Rowley duck everybody?

"When we under pressure, when we supposed to have your back and you supposed to have our back, you decide to duck out. You throw everybody under the bus.

"You put a man in power (Stuart Young) who knows nothing about the country. Nothing. And you put him there, to do what?"

Young was appointed prime minister on March 17, after PNM leader Dr Keith Rowley resigned as PM on March 16. Young called the general election days after but the PNM lost to the UNC ­– 13-26. The TPP also defeated the PNM in Tobago capturing the two seats there.

Patrick Joseph (East Indian male in his forties), welcomed the election result, saying, "It went perfect."

Newsday asked if he had expected the extent of the UNC's win. "Yes, yes, yes.

"We needed a change from this previous government." He said many things will change under an incoming UNC government.

"Like for old age pensions, for the kids, wage increase and everything else."

Asked if the UNC had been over-promising to the population, he said, "No, no, no. I don't think so."

Newsday met a mixed race female loans officer in her thirties. She said, "It wasn't surprising at all. The people wanted change.

"They want to see a change in the cost of living, affordable food prices, housing available to all, things like that."

Was she confident the UNC could deliver all its promises?

"In my opinion both governments are more or less the same. Time will tell.

"It was an interesting election. But people were just tired."

A retired African man in his sixties spoke to Newsday.

"The people spoke. Dr Rowley was most disrespectful to the population and he told himself he could do what he wanted and nobody would talk about it.

"You told the population you have no money and they could only get four per cent.

"You went and full your pocket and sail into the sunset."

Asked if he had heard any other people express such sentiments, he said, "We living in Trinidad. We seeing what going on.

"All politicians tell themselves that the public are fools. This is because in Trinidad we have a culture 'PNM till I dead' or 'UNC till I dead.'

"But Rowley, the mistake me made, was that is a suffering time you disrespect hard working workers who deserve money. And you, who living tax-free, pay yourself one set of money. You are going home with a pension of $87,000 every single month, for doing what? The people put you there. What did you do? In ten years what did you do?"

The man said, "He made PNM lose that election – Rowley.

"If he had moved more humanely and become more compassionate, the PNM would have still been in power. he became arrogant."

He said he had still voted PNM , even though he had reconsigned they would lose.

An African woman in her seventies told Newsday the results had not surprised her.

Seemingly alluding to a rejection of the PNM's promise to introduce property tax, she said, "Trinidadians don't like to pay bills or tax."

Asked if the UNC had made too many promises which it would not be able to afford, she said, "She (Persad-Bissessar) had promised all these things, but as a parent I know I cannot give my children all they wish for."

She wondered where the money would come from to fund the promises.

"Government workers want money, but people don't want to pay taxes.

"You are going to end up with frustration."