About two dozen people supporting Vasant Bharath staged a demonstration Sunday demanding that Bharath be retained as the opposition candidate for St Augustine. And they have threatened to vote for the People's National Movement (PNM) if the UNC does not accede to their demands.
Bharat won the seat in the 2007 general election, beating Congress of the People (COP) leader Winston Dookeran by 617 votes.
The constituency has always been an opposition stronghold, swinging to the PNM only once in the 1971 no-vote campaign when the PNM won all 36 seats in the country.
In the internal election of the UNC in January when Bharat ran against Jack Warner for the post of chairman of the UNC he got 2,734 votes among UNC members across the country; Warner got 9,073 votes.
In his own constituency Bharath was only able to get 162 votes; Warner got 419 in St Augustine.
Now a poll done by NACTA is suggesting that Bharath has the support of the majority of constituents. The poll was done using a sample of 160 voters.
Commenting on the issue, UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said people have a right to express their opinion. She said so far there is no firm decision on who will represent the constituentcy in the election.
The UNC resumes its screening process this week. There are reports that COP's Prakash Ramadhar will run in St Augustine and the party's leader, Winston Dookeran will contest the Tunapuna seat.
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KAMLA FIGHTING PEOPLE'S POWER
At the Fyzabad meeting last week, Makandal Daaga reminded us that democracy belongs to the people and we are the ones who must always hold the reigns. He further reiterated that never again must anyone be masters of us, nor for that matter should we be prisoners in our own land.
We are being told by Persad Bissessar to vote for her. This is the time we tell her whether we will vote for her or we will not vote for her. After all she is the one who said that the voice of the people is the voice of god. By ignoring our calls for so long and dragging her feet on the matter of candidates she is sending the signal that many will interpret that she is cavalier with power. During elections the power of the people is strongest and the leaders are the weakest; and if she is being so stubborn now what about later ? Persad Bissessar is no Basdeo Panday. She must be reminded:power is fire and using it is not child's play. We must also remind her of how Samuel Butler exhorted: power intoxicates, and makes mere sots of magistrates; the fumes of it invade the brain, and make men giddy, proud, and vain.
We must shake her and see how strong this coalition is. Let us see how much power each of these partners has. Lets us see her real power and let us show her ours. We must tell her that she does not have any power as yet. We must form a ghiraw around her community and bawl down her name in shame if that is what it will take for her to listen. Kamla is getting swell headed and giddy with the fumes of power from afar. Patrick Manning is down, but there is never any guarantee that Persad Bissessar will win anything unless she listens to us.
P.S. When ah fella is ah tief he does only go by tief to tell em what e doing is good.
RB! Kamla IS people power incarnate. That nativity occurred on January 24th 2010/ It shall be confirmed on May 24th 2010, inshaa Allah!
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