“They going to get licks as if they ent ‘christen’.”That strong (but curious) war cry was thrown at the PNM by PP’s Clifton De Coteau at UNC’s Monday night forum in Barrackpore. The usually mild-mannered De Coteau was in attack mode as were his colleagues and boss visiting “the area where the Ganges meets the Nile, with both African and Indian brothers and sisters,” De Coteau said.
Featured act, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar arrived in a sea of flashing blue vehicle lights. A slow meet-and-greet walk through smiling supporters left her security detail sweating with effort. The people reached out and she, as always, reached back easily. No surprise, therefore. The night’s target was again PNM leader Keith Rowley which PP pitched as her opposite, playing on the “raging bull” perception created by his former leader Patrick Manning.
“Wrong and strong,” added Persad-Bissessar to the PP’s roll out of its repertoire of Rowley rhetoric along with other target, PNM’s PRO Faris Al-Rawi. “He (Rowley) even used the Shaggy Defence, ‘Wasn’t Me’ (on the David West issue),” she said quoting the Jamaican hip hopster’s tune of the same name. At meeting’s end, the PM’s relaxed tone indicated her satisfaction with crowd turnout and energy levels. UNC next Monday heads to St Joseph, a seat the party lost in 2013 and is busily “working” now.
Barrackpore, where Monday’s event was held, is a way off from San Fernando East which the PNM is now eyeing with some concern after the recommended shift of boundaries in ten areas, San Fernando East included, by the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC). PNM vice-chairman Colm Imbert said San Fernando East had been weakened the most with the loss of 1,000 pro-PNM actual votes (not electors), due the introduction of three (UNC) Oropouche East polling divisions and transfer of two San Fernando East divisions to San Fernando West.
“San Fernando East could turn into a marginal. If those three Oropouche divisions had been there in 2010 PNM would have had 1,000 votes less. The areas moved into San Fernando East are very strategic. It includes unoccupied HDC units, including from Corinth,” Imbert said. “San Fernando West has been strengthened by 100 pro-PNM votes from the two added San Fernando East divisions. “It’s insufficient to win. That seat will have to be won on merit,” he added
In his Diego Martin North East, Imbert said the impact was positive since 250 anti-PNM votes were shed. He said if his margin of victory was 450 in 2010, it would now be 700. “But my seat is still close though the chances of winning have improved.” He described other changes as inconsequential. PNM San Fernando East officials said officers were campaigning house to-house, especially in Corinth with a voters’ list to detect any “house padding.”
However, stated numbers may have been in question at Tuesday’s COP Arima meeting where UNC MP Jairam Seemungal, saying election were around the corner, exulted at the “hundreds of thousands” present. Some eyebrows had a “hah?” moment. Couple smirks arose. Chairs were full at the Arima new Government Primary School auditorium. But they covered little more about three-quarters of space and guests appeared a couple hundred rather than thousands.
Enthusiasm, tempo’ed calypsoes and flag waving however conveyed the vibe of the attendance, a tad larger than the previous week’s St Augustine meeting, all of which COP leader Prakash Ramadhar said uplifted him. Saying meetings cost more than COP could afford, he appealed: “We need each and every one. You carry a serious responsibility to play your part... help us. We can’t do it alone.”
Most interesting spin of the night though,indirect acknowledgment of COP’s current ground floor status, was MP Lincoln Douglas’s observation: “The COP has nowhere to go but up.” Next Tuesday’s meeting at Diego Martin will tell if that’s possible.