An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

For­mer deputy chair­man of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) Diego Mar­tin North East con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive Ricky Shanklin says while they stepped back from be­ing part of the elec­tion ma­chin­ery this time, they have not aban­doned the par­ty.

Re­spond­ing to claims by leader of the Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty (PEP) Phillip Ed­ward Alexan­der that the em­bat­tled ex­ec­u­tive had been qui­et­ly re­turn­ing, he said it was sim­ply not true.

Alexan­der made the claims dur­ing a walk­a­bout at Boissiere Vil­lage, Mar­aval, yes­ter­day, where he was cam­paign­ing for the Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West seat which he is con­test­ing. Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young is the cur­rent MP for that area.

And in an im­me­di­ate re­sponse, Shanklin in­sist­ed the for­mer ex­ec­u­tive “will not par­take in any­thing at the mo­ment.”

The ex­ec­u­tive re­signed with im­me­di­ate ef­fect sev­en days ago, adding to the grow­ing list of res­ig­na­tions plagu­ing the UNC.

Those who re­signed said it was “ut­ter­ly un­ac­cept­able” that they were be­ing pres­sured to sup­port Alexan­der and the PEP un­der the threat of be­ing side­lined or black­list­ed with­in the UNC.

In the lat­est twist, Alexan­der claimed the ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers were “com­ing back qui­et with their tail tucked be­tween their legs.”

How­ev­er, Shanklin de­nied this.

Phillip Alexan­der gets a warm wel­come in Boissiere Vil­lage

Mean­while, Alexan­der was warm­ly wel­comed by res­i­dents of Boissiere Vil­lage dur­ing his walk­a­bout. “They were over­whelm­ing­ly hap­py to see some­one oth­er than the in­cum­bent be­cause the in­cum­bent is in­vis­i­ble,” he said.

Alexan­der said he was known for be­ing the “fix-it man.”

He added, “They know if I am giv­en a chance in of­fice, there is a high like­li­hood I won’t be in­vis­i­ble.”

Re­call­ing the ear­ly his­to­ry of the area and its sub­se­quent de­vel­op­ment, Alexan­der begged for the op­por­tu­ni­ty to come in and “do some ur­ban re­new­al in some of these com­mu­ni­ties.”

Claim­ing Mar­aval had the high­est re­al es­tate per square foot in Trinidad right now, he said peo­ple were pay­ing tax­es as re­quired, and as such, they were en­ti­tled to prop­er roads and im­proved drainage.

Fol­low­ing the walk­a­bout, he added, “I think they want re­spect. They want to know if some­body comes in and sees them. These peo­ple here are sti­fled for rep­re­sen­ta­tion.”

Ac­cus­ing Young of ab­di­cat­ing his re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, the PEP leader said he rep­re­sent­ed hope for all the burgess­es of PoS North/St Ann’s West.