Carisa Lee

Close to 100 sup­port­ers came out yes­ter­day to sup­port the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s (PNM) Can­di­date for Barataria/San Juan Ja­son Williams.

But as they gath­ered out­side the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) of­fice in the con­stituen­cy they were told by po­lice of­fi­cers to so­cial dis­tance and form groups of 25. This was to en­sure COVID-19 pro­to­cols ac­cord­ing to the pub­lic health or­di­nance were ad­hered to.

“If we could just spread out and main­tain the so­cial dis­tanc­ing,” Williams an­nounced on the mi­cro­phone af­ter stop­ping the mu­sic.

“I’m just ask­ing if we could prob­a­bly split up in­to like three groups,” he con­tin­ued. This was not the case ap­prox­i­mate­ly half an hour be­fore when sup­port­ers of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ (UNC) Sad­dam Ho­sein gath­ered out­side the EBC. Over 100 sup­port­ers danced to mu­sic from a big truck and tas­sa.

Out­go­ing Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment and for­mer Min­is­ter of Health Dr Fuad Khan who ac­com­pa­nied Ho­sein to his nom­i­na­tion said the pub­lic health or­di­nance is be­ing used to sup­press the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go. He said the par­ty told sup­port­ers to so­cial dis­tance and wear masks.

“The rub­bish that is be­ing ped­dled in this coun­try is a con­trol rub­bish,” Dr Khan said.

Even though some didn’t so­cial dis­tance or wear masks, Dr Khan said he was very sat­is­fied with what he saw out­side the EBC of­fice.

PEP Barataria/San Juan candidates Alberta Purdeen laves the Returning Officer’s Office after filing her nomination papers yesterday.

ABRAHAM DIAZ

The MP who rep­re­sent­ed the mar­gin­al seat for the UNC since 1995 said he be­lieved it was time to find his suc­ces­sor and he did with Ho­sein.

As Ho­sein walked out the door af­ter fil­ing nom­i­na­tion his moth­er Di­ane Ho­sein could not hold back the tears. She said she was feel­ing joy and hap­pi­ness.

“I am proud of my son,” she said.

Ho­sein told elec­tors of the mar­gin­al seat that while he was a sen­a­tor he did a lot of ground­work that pre­pared him to rep­re­sent as an MP.

“I can’t wait, I can’t wait for Sad­dam, I can’t wait for the UNC to take it back,” one sup­port­er shout­ed.

As the UNC made their way along the East­ern Main Road, they clashed with PNM sup­port­ers and danced to both tas­sa and ca­lyp­so.

“Ja­son Williams be­long to the com­mu­ni­ty of Barataria, San Juan,” one sup­port­er said.

“He has been rep­re­sent­ing us, not through pol­i­tics but he has been rep­re­sent­ing us,” she con­tin­ued.

Williams was the third can­di­date to file his nom­i­na­tion, just af­ter the Peo­ple’s Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty’s Al­bertha Pur­deen. And even though many of his sup­port dis­persed af­ter be­ing asked to so­cial dis­tance, Williams said there were some­thing to ad­just on the form but every­thing was set.

He said he was still learn­ing the world of pol­i­tics but was hap­py to serve. “I came with my PNM fam­i­ly, this is enough fam­i­ly,” he said.