RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

The bat­tle for the mar­gin­al San Fer­nan­do West seat is heat­ing up with the two main par­ties—the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) and the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC)—hurl­ing ac­cu­sa­tions of “dirty pol­i­tics” against each oth­er.

Can­di­dates Faris Al-Rawi (PNM) and Dr Michael Dowlath (UNC) host­ed sep­a­rate cot­tage meet­ings at Mara­bel­la Train­line and Mootoo Lands, Mara­bel­la, re­spec­tive­ly, on Fri­day night.

For­mer Oil­field Work­ers’ Trade Union branch pres­i­dent Christo­pher Jack­man, who ap­peared at the UNC meet­ing, ac­cused Al-Rawi of en­gag­ing in un­der­hand­ed tac­tics.

“In a pan­ic sit­u­a­tion, Faris is re­sort­ing to dirty pol­i­tics. We re­ceived re­ports—not hearsay that they are call­ing con­trac­tors, Cepep, URP and Forestry—in­to the of­fice for brain­wash­ing ex­er­cis­es. They want to know who at­tend­ed Na­pari­ma Col­lege. Faris is util­is­ing the race card and class to di­vide the peo­ple of San Fer­nan­do,” Jack­man de­clared.

Dr Dowlath was a prin­ci­pal at the col­lege for 15 years be­fore his re­tire­ment more than a decade ago.

Jack­man claimed that Al-Rawi’s team was “on a mis­sion to re­move all UNC flags and en­gage in hos­tile ac­tions at the be­hest of their leader.

And UNC Al­der­man Vil­liana Ra­moutars­ingh claimed the dirty cam­paign in­volves chil­dren.

“There is a woman we have been help­ing since last year and she put on one show (dur­ing a walk­a­bout). She took a child’s snack bag, threw it in the riv­er and say we not hun­gry, on­ly to re­alise that some­one across the road was film­ing and two peo­ple from their camp came to col­lect the video and it end up all over the In­ter­net. I must say this hurt be­cause this was some­one we have been help­ing but it shows the lev­el of des­per­a­tion that some peo­ple have reached,” she said.

But Al-Rawi de­nied the ac­cu­sa­tions of dirty pol­i­tics. Speak­ing to re­porters af­ter the Train­line meet­ing, Al-Rawi said.

“I nev­er said one neg­a­tive or deroga­to­ry word against any of my op­po­nents. Why in God’s green earth will I en­gage in that? Where is the ev­i­dence of that?” he ques­tioned.

Critis­ing Ra­moutars­ingh’s cred­i­bil­i­ty, Al-Rawi said: “Have you ever heard a po­lite word about me from Vil­liana Ra­moutars­ingh? Miss Ra­moutars­ingh, I am not in­ter­est­ed in your af­fec­tions.”

Re­spond­ing to Dowlath’s claims about failed projects, Al-Rawi said: “Is this the Dr Dowlath who has been ab­sent dur­ing the whole of COVID, who has not giv­en a sin­gle les­son to a poor child in the San Fer­nan­do con­stituen­cy? The same Dr Dowlath who has enun­ci­at­ed no plans and does not work in any place of em­ploy­ment for rea­sons un­known. Is this Dr Dowlath who took pho­tos of the wa­ter­front de­vel­op­ment where con­struc­tion is on­go­ing and then said it’s an aban­doned site? I am sor­ry, I don’t buy it. Good luck, try your best and move on.”

Al-Rawi urged prop­er con­duct dur­ing the cam­paign.

“San Fer­nan­do don’t roll like that. I don’t run neg­a­tive cam­paigns. I stand on my record,” he said.

Last week, Coun­cil for Re­spon­si­ble Po­lit­i­cal Be­hav­iour in Trinidad and To­ba­go chair­man Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath iden­ti­fied San Fer­nan­do West as a cru­cial mar­gin­al con­stituen­cy that could de­ter­mine the out­come of the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion. He urged can­di­dates to dis­play re­spon­si­ble be­hav­iour.