Gail Alexan­der

Po­lit­i­cal lead­ers of some small­er par­ties have blanked Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s uni­ty call while some have called for the UNC to fix cer­tain things and ques­tioned why the uni­ty call came so late.

That was the feed­back yes­ter­day fol­low­ing Per­sad-Bisses­sar call for a na­tion­al ac­cord to fight the PNM dur­ing a vir­tu­al meet­ing on Thurs­day night.

“I put out a clar­i­on call to all and sundry from whichev­er po­lit­i­cal side who have be­come dis­heart­ened and dis­il­lu­sioned and even dis­gust­ed by the ar­ro­gance and ag­gres­sion of the cur­rent ad­min­is­tra­tion, to be­come part of the Na­tion­al Ac­cord to heal and help re­store T&T,’’ Per­sad-Bisses­sar told sup­port­ers dur­ing the meet­ing.

“To those who have once been part of us, I say wel­come home. Now is the time to put aside our dif­fer­ences in the in­ter­est of our na­tion. Let us come to­geth­er to fight this wicked Row­ley Gov­ern­ment. There’s room for every­one at the ta­ble and un­der our tent.”

Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice leader David Ab­du­lah

“We’re not buy­ing that - at all. UNC had at­tacked Pa­tri­ot­ic’s bid to get Petrotrin’s re­fin­ery and we were part of the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship and we saw how they be­haved - so there’s no uni­ty they can speak of. In Pointe-a-Pierre, where I’m con­test­ing, peo­ple are fed up of both UNC and PNM.’’

Con­gress of the Peo­ple leader Car­olyn Seep­er­sad-Bachan:

“It can­not be uni­ty for pow­er’s sake. Uni­ty must be for mean­ing­ful change for T&T - and al­low­ing an in­de­pen­dent voice in the Par­lia­ment.”

Fuad Abu Bakr

New Na­tion­al Vi­sion leader Fuad Abu Bakr

Bakr said he recog­nised the UNC and PNM were both try­ing to get more sup­port. But he said he didn’t see Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s uni­ty call as fea­si­ble or pos­si­ble at this point in time. He ques­tioned how it would work.

He said he par­tic­u­lar­ly didn’t see how it would work for con­stituents who want bet­ter rep­re­sen­ta­tion. Abu Bakr not­ed the UNC al­ready has can­di­dates in the eight ar­eas NNV’s con­test­ing.

“So what is she speak­ing about com­ing to­geth­er now? Peo­ple feel alien­at­ed and ig­nored by both par­ties and want peo­ple to sit in Par­lia­ment and tru­ly speak on their be­half. This is what NNV’s try­ing to do - rep­re­sent.”

He said the COP at­tempt­ed uni­ty with UNC in 2010 and “was chewed up and spit out.”

Garvin Nicholas

Move­ment for Na­tion­al De­vel­op­ment leader Garvin Nicholas

“Now would be the per­fect time to with­draw the UNC can­di­dates ... there’s no doubt that a straight fight be­tween the MND and the PNM in Diego Mar­tin augers well and strength­ens our chances of win­ning the three seats. ’

“How­ev­er, MND’s seek­ing to of­fer gen­uine change to the peo­ple of Diego Mar­tin, giv­ing them their own sense of iden­ti­ty. That could be com­pro­mised with any pre-elec­tion arrange­ment.

“Any arrange­ment post-elec­tion will on­ly be en­tered in­to with the con­sent of the Diego Mar­tin elec­torate which we will gauge by al­low­ing them to vote on it us­ing our Con­sul­ta­tion App.”

Phillip Alexander

Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty leader Phillip Alexan­der

“As we have no idea what a ‘Na­tion­al Ac­cord’ means in these in­stances, we’re hes­i­tant to even have an opin­ion. Like every­one else wary of the fi­as­co that was the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship, we won­der if the UNC even pos­sess the moral au­thor­i­ty to make such a call.

“Our Con­sti­tu­tion and sys­tem of gov­er­nance is bro­ken and the UNC has had two op­por­tu­ni­ties to ded­i­cate them­selves to fix­ing it and failed. Now is the time for the peo­ple to get re­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion fo­cused on re­de­vel­op­ing the na­tion.

“While we’re open to dis­cussing such is­sues with any­one, we need to be pel­lu­cid­ly clear we’ve re­sist­ed the calls for mar­riages of con­ve­nience be­fore. Our po­si­tion in that re­gard hasn’t changed. We are, how­ev­er, in­ter­est­ed in hear­ing what a Na­tion­al Ac­cord might mean to UNC and how it might dis­con­nect the ‘con­tract mafia’ that’s loot­ed T&T, from get­ting near our Trea­sury.

“What we haven’t heard in all of this is UNC’s will­ing­ness to join with the call that ends cor­rup­tion and in­sti­tutes re­call leg­is­la­tion to put the pow­er of Par­lia­ment back in­to vot­ers’ hands. Sig­nals along those lines may in­ter­est us in lis­ten­ing fur­ther.

“Un­til such time, PEP stands as a bea­con of hope of a bet­ter to­mor­row. All who are in­ter­est­ed in unit­ing for more than mar­riages of elec­toral con­ve­nience are asked to reach out to us.”

Jack Warner

In­de­pen­dent Lib­er­al Par­ty leader Jack Warn­er

“It’s too ear­ly for me to say (if I’d join up) with UNC. I have to talk to my ex­ec­u­tive.

“It’s a very good idea, bet­ter late than nev­er but why so late in com­ing, we’d called for uni­ty and it was re­ject­ed (by UNC). It’s a fan­tas­tic idea but why so late?”