Jesse Ramdeo

At the 2015 gen­er­al elec­tion, over 17,000 vot­ers from the con­stituen­cy of Point Fortin took to the polls.

When the re­sults were an­nounced, the PNM’s Ed­mund Dil­lon edged out his UNC op­po­nent Ravi Rati­ram, win­ning the seat by se­cur­ing just over 60 per cent of the votes.

But five years lat­er and with fresh faces set to do bat­tle for a seat pre­dom­i­nant­ly held by the rul­ing par­ty, those on the ground say they are now look­ing to­wards the youth to steer the bor­ough in­to ar­eas of growth and de­vel­op­ment.

Around mid­day yes­ter­day, the con­ver­sa­tion of a group gath­ered at Gee­ta’s Restau­rant and Steak­house along Tan­ner Street, cen­tred around the up­com­ing elec­tion bat­tle.

Ac­cord­ing to Natasha Ha­gley, Point Fortin’s fu­ture ap­pears bright giv­en the prospect of the PNM’s can­di­date, may­or Kennedy Richards.

“I think the peo­ple of Point Fortin have lots to look for­ward to. Ac­tion beats old talk. We’re not on­ly see­ing it in the man­i­fes­ta­tion of the Ma­haica Oval or the hos­pi­tal but we’re al­so see­ing it in the new coun­cil in­stalled un­der his wor­ship, the may­or, Kennedy Richards.”

Al­so seat­ed at the ta­ble was Phillip Rgoo­nanan who added that Richards was a true son of the soil, “born and bred.”

Owner of Shazmo’s Nursery, Shazam Mohammed, discusses agriculture with employee Sharron Harris.

Ha­gley said while in oth­er ar­eas there had been face­less rep­re­sen­ta­tion, it was not the case in Point Fortin. Both she and Ra­goo­nanan shared the view that the UNC’s Tahar­qa Obi­ka lacked the con­nec­tion with the man on the ground, both even ques­tion­ing where the UNC’s rep­re­sen­ta­tive had been over the years.

Al­so raised dur­ing the dis­course were some of the is­sues plagu­ing the bor­ough, name­ly poor roads and un­em­ploy­ment. Ra­goo­nanan said while the move to close Petrotrin due to its lack of prof­itabil­i­ty un­der the PNM seemed like a dag­ger in the hearts of res­i­dents, op­por­tu­ni­ties have emerged with the es­tab­lish­ment of Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um.

“The kind of strides Her­itage has made for mass de­vel­op­ment...soon res­i­dents will re­alise the ben­e­fits.”

He, how­ev­er, said more could be done to im­prove un­em­ploy­ment in the area.

Mean­while, Rudranath Ben­sarie said giv­en the his­to­ry of the pol­i­tics in the bor­ough, the PNM will like­ly re­tain the seat de­spite lit­tle be­ing done to im­prove the liv­ing con­di­tions of res­i­dents in the area.

“All the MPs that pass through Point Fortin, they nev­er per­form,” he said.

He is how­ev­er op­ti­mistic that with the in­jec­tion of new blood, hopes for a bet­ter com­mu­ni­ty could be re­alised.

Some res­i­dents along the fish­ing vil­lage of Ica­cos said they have grown tired of the ne­glect and lack of rep­re­sen­ta­tion met­ed out to them and view their vote as a waste of time. The res­i­dents say whether the UNC’s Obi­ka or the PNM’s Richards se­cure the seat at the up­com­ing elec­tion there may be lit­tle change to life in the rur­al area.

Rudranath Bensarie

Res­i­dents have al­so ex­pressed a lev­el of dis­ap­point­ment that for an area which has pre­dom­i­nant­ly been the hub of the oil and gas sec­tor, there has been lit­tle to re­flect the wealth which would have once flowed through the bor­ough.

Ac­cord­ing to Shaz­am Mo­hammed, own­er of Shaz­mo’s nurs­ery and agri­cul­ture shop, the area’s next MP needs to place em­pha­sis on the agri­cul­ture sec­tor.

“All gov­ern­ments, past and present, the in­put in agri­cul­ture is not what it sup­posed to be. COVID-19 showed us that food was the most im­por­tant thing.”

Mo­hammed said the area’s Farmer’s Mar­ket has been a ma­jor in­cen­tive to farm­ers in the area. How­ev­er, the is­sue of land tenure for agri­cul­tur­al pur­pos­es was a prob­lem.

Sharon Har­ris, an em­ploy­ee at Mo­hammed’s shop said she would like to see more done to as­sist farm­ers not just in the area but across the coun­try.

With the race to White­hall now in the last lap, res­i­dents of Point Fortin have al­ready set their sights on how the prospec­tive can­di­dates be­ing of­fered up could bring im­prove­ments to the sleepy bor­ough.