PNM, MSJ cross paths in Point Fortin

MEMBERS of the PNM and the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) shared in some friendly banter on the local government campaign trail in Point Fortin on Friday.

The two parties crossed paths at the Gonzales Community Centre.

PNM members led by party chairman Stuart Young, Point Fortin MP Kennedy Richards and the party's Techier/Guapo candidate Wendell Williams, greeted MSJ leader David Abdulah, Williams' MSJ rival Nigel Whyte and MSJ supporters at the centre.

Young told the media he was pleased to be in Point Fortin to lend support to Williams.

On the camaraderie he shared with Abdulah and MSJ members, Young said, "I used to represent Mr Abdulah and his comrades and they will remember what I did for them."

With just over a week to go before election day, Young was confident of the PNM's chances of victory.

"Excellent. We will continue to do what we have to do."

Before the MSJ started their walkabout. Whyte promised to take the fight to his rivals in Point Fortin.

He said the Techier/Guapo district had many issues to deal with.

These included flooding and a lack of recreational facilities

Abdulah praised Whyte and his fellow MSJ candidates, Amber Wharton and Kester Swan, for flying the MSJ's flag in Point Fortin.

He said the MSJ was lighting a flame to keep the spirit of trade unionist Tubal "Uriah" Buzz Butler alive.

"Thar flame and that spirit of Butler will move from Point Fortin, right throughout the length and breadth of Trinidad and Tobago, until there is social justice."

A poll conducted by the North American Caribbean Teachers Association (NACTA) on July 23, found that a large number of people are turned off from politics and will not vote in the August 14 local government elections.

NACTA said there is no significant voter swing towards either the PNM or UNC with neither one on the required voter-support ascendancy to knock out the other in the seven local corporations each of them currently control.

The poll found voters turning away from the PNM and the UNC.

Both parties are also facing an uphill task to retain their traditional base.

Younger East Indian voters are crossing over to the PNM because they see limited "political hope and opportunities" there compared to in the UNC as presently constituted.

The poll said there is hardly any similar ethnic crossover of voters to the UNC with African and mixed voters "turned off from some of the political personalities in the opposition camp."