Jack building toilets, showers for San F'do "trainline" residents

A construction team employed by UNC Chairman Jack Warner is heading to San Fernando Thursday to begin work on install toilets and showers for people living in an area known as Bayshore.

Unlike the posh Bayshore residential community in Trinidad and Tobago's north west, the southern area is called locally the "trainline" and is a place marked by poverty and squalor.

Warner told a meeting in San Fernando on Wednesday night he visited the area earlier in the day with Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, the People's Partnership candidate for the San Fernando West constituency.

He said it was his first visit to the community, which is a PNM stronghold and said he was shocked that people Trinidad and Tobago could be living in such deplorable conditions. In one instance, he said, raw sewage was seeping into one of the homes.

The UNC chairman said he has visited more than 170 countries in his role as Vice President of FIFA and has never seen such human suffering. He made a public apology to everyone living there on behalf of the nation.

He said he promised that he would get his personal contractors to begin installing five toilets and five showers for the community because "no one should live so". He said it doesn't matter if the resident still vote for the PNM on Monday.

Warner also spoke about the UNC campaign and said "nothing could stop the winds of change" in the country. "They could do what they want but they cannot stop Kamla...we cannot stop loving you," he said.

He also said the PNM would try all manner of "dirty tricks" ahead of Monday's vote. He again criticised the authorities for welding the gates of the George Earle Park in Sat Joseph to prevent the UNC from holding a meeting there on Tuesday. The party held the meeting on the road instead.

And he said he has reliable information that "they plan to dig up around the Aranguez Savannah" to prevent vehicles from entering the park where the People's Alliance is holding its final election rally.

He said nothing is going to have trucks standing by to "full back" the trenches.

Warner said the whole country is upset with the PNM and nothing can stop a victory for the opposition on Monday.

Warner and his lawyer are meeting Thursday with officials of the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) to lodge formal complaints about matters relating to the election.