As the countdown to the July 16 by-election draws closer both the United National Congress (UNC) and the People’s National Movement (PNM) have accused each other of a dirty campaign in one of the two electoral districts they are contesting.
The accusations were levied yesterday by Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Stuart Young and UNC Senator Wade Mark as six candidates filed nomination papers for the Barataria and Belmont East electoral districts.
The UNC, however, intends to lodge a complaint to the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) returning officer and the police over the PNM’s nasty campaigning.
The Progressive Empowerment Party (PEP) is the third force in the race.
For the Belmont East district UNC’s Lianna Babb-Gonzales, PNM’s Nicole Young and PEP’s Felicia Holder filed at the office of the returning officer at Henry Street, Port-of-Spain, before 10 am.
Filing of papers for the Barataria district was done by UNC’s Sharon Maraj-Dharam, PNM’s Kimberly Small and PEP’s Christoph Samlal before the 3 pm deadline in Aranguez.
The seats in the San Juan/Laventille Regional Corporation and Port-of-Spain City Corporation became vacant following the death of councillors Pernell Bruno on July 8, 2017 and Councillor Darrly Rajpaul on November 18, 2017
Babb-Gonzales said she was not scared that Belmont has been a PNM stronghold since she been gaining traction.
Next Sunday, the UNC will provide a battery of lawyers to families of individuals who have been incarcerated while a team of doctors will offer medical services to burgesses in Belmont.
“The PNM is conducting a very dirty campaign. What they have been doing is that all our posters that we have put up they have hired thugs to go and paint them over and pull them down. We are not doing that to the PNM,” said Mark who led a team of UNC supporters who came to support Gonzales-Babb.
Asked if the UNC have evidence of such claims, Mark said let the PNM deny it.
“The only person who would want to destroy our posters would be our enemies. This is a police matter and we will talk to the EBC as well about the dirty campaign that is being conducted by the PNM,” Mark insisted.
Gonzales-Babb said people have seen PNM supporters ripping or covering their posters.
“They are mortally afraid of Jearlean John who has been campaigning in Belmont,” Mark said.
Mark said after the UNC defeats the PNM in Belmont and Barataria his party will call on Government to call a by-election in the constituency of La Horquetta/ Talparo.
“And they know they are going to lose that seat because Maxie Cuffie is not going to be back in town for a long time. Once the four- year period is up under the Constitution you cannot call a by-election. We are going to put sufficient pressure on them (PNM) to ensure that they call a by-election.”
An upbeat Young said she was confident of victory.
On the issue of claims by the UNC that the PNM has not been fighting clean, Young (Stuart) who came out to support their Belmont candidate, said the situation was the opposite, as he blamed the UNC of covering PNM’s posters.
“The PNM never engages in that type of dirty campaigning. There is certainly no need for PNM in Belmont East to engage in anything but clean campaigning because it is going to be a clean sweep in Belmont,” Young said.
He said the PNM is expecting the UNC to lose their deposits as happened in the 2015 general election.
He said if the UNC gets more than 50 votes in Belmont they would achieve something.
THE UNC captured 49 votes in Belmont for the 2016 Local Government Election.
If PNM supporters are found to be engage in dirty campaigning, Young said the party would not condone it.
“I don’t know how the UNC behaves. What I do know is the way the UNC behaves the PNM would never behave. If you take a drive through in the Belmont constituency as I did yesterday, you will see whose posters are on top of the other person’s posters. And it is certainly not the PNM’s posters on top of UNC’s posters,” Young said.
Holder who was born disabled said she was optimist of her chances for PEP.
“I think my chances are amazing. I have been walking around Belmont and people are desperate for change,” she said.
Samlal said burgesses in Barataria want to support a third party.
Calls yesterday to EBC’s communications manager Dominic Hinds went unanswered.