Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

UNC deputy po­lit­i­cal leader Dr Roodal Mooni­lal has warned that a vote for any third par­ty “is a vote for the PNM.”

Mooni­lal did so while speak­ing at the UNC’s Pave­ment re­port in Debe on Tues­day. He al­so claimed Gov­ern­ment made 11 with­drawals from the Her­itage and Sta­bil­i­sa­tion Fund to­talling al­most $21 bil­lion from 2016 to 2024.

UNC MP Bar­ry Padarath al­so queried if it was true that ad­min­is­tra­tive arrange­ments would on­ly be com­plet­ed at the end of Feb­ru­ary for the Salaries Re­view Com­mis­sion’s salary in­creas­es for pub­lic of­fi­cials and if Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s step­ping down was hinged on this.

“And that is why you hem­ming and haw­ing from ex­it­ing the of­fice of PM?” Padarath asked.

“That’s why he’s giv­ing him­self the lee­way of De­cem­ber, hold­ing on in Jan­u­ary and wait­ing for Feb­ru­ary be­cause he knows at the end of Feb­ru­ary, the ad­min­is­tra­tive arrange­ments will be com­plet­ed and that’s when the new salary will come in­to ef­fect...it’s not Row­ley but all, all, all must go!”

Padarath said he’d chal­lenged the Gov­ern­ment to have a de­bate on the SRC re­port, “be­cause I could talk for 14 UNC MPs but I don’t know where the oth­er five (UNC) MPs was go­ing.”

Say­ing En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young held of­fice when the 2022 Paria divers’ tragedy oc­curred, Padarath point­ed to UNC coun­cil­lor Vanes­sa Kussie (wife of late div­er Rishi Nages­sar) in the au­di­ence. He laud­ed UNC leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar for Kussie’s se­lec­tion as a 2023 lo­cal gov­ern­ment can­di­date.

Padarath claimed the UNC, “rep­re­sents sta­bil­i­ty, we’re not the ‘young and the use­less’!”

UNC MP Sad­dam Ho­sein echoed a com­men­ta­tor’s con­cerns that is­sues in the PNM re­cent­ly could have na­tion­al im­pli­ca­tions for T&T and its gov­er­nance.

The par­ty’s San Fer­nan­do East can­di­date, John Al­i­bo­cus, de­scribed him­self as a “moogol (sic)” who was the first in 23 years in the UNC to win the Mara­bel­la West dis­trict in San Fer­nan­do West for the lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions. Moru­ga MP Michelle Ben­jamin called PNM min­is­ters “stush,” telling the au­di­ence, “Row­ley watch­ing this meet­ing, we must make him trem­ble!”