The con­stituen­cy ex­ec­u­tive of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) in Diego Mar­tin North East has re­signed, cit­ing pres­sure to sup­port Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty (PEP) leader Phillip Ed­ward Alexan­der and con­cerns over the di­rec­tion of the par­ty’s lead­er­ship.

“It is ut­ter­ly un­ac­cept­able that we are now be­ing pres­sured to sup­port Phillip Ed­ward Alexan­der and his PEP par­ty un­der the threat of be­ing side­lined or black­list­ed with­in the UNC,” the ex­ec­u­tive wrote in its res­ig­na­tion let­ter which be­gan cir­cu­lat­ing this morn­ing.

“This bla­tant act of po­lit­i­cal co­er­cion is a be­tray­al of the hard­work­ing, ded­i­cat­ed mem­bers who have stood by the UNC through thick and thin. Even more dis­turb­ing is the hypocrisy of vil­i­fy­ing life­long UNC mem­bers while em­brac­ing an in­di­vid­ual who has spent years vi­cious­ly at­tack­ing both the par­ty and its mem­ber­ship.”

Mem­bers of the ex­ec­u­tive said they could no longer serve in good con­science due to what they de­scribed as po­lit­i­cal co­er­cion and a de­par­ture from the UNC’s found­ing val­ues.

“For years, we have worked tire­less­ly to strength­en the UNC’s pres­ence in Diego Mar­tin North East, build mem­ber­ship and up­hold the par­ty’s core val­ues in a tra­di­tion­al­ly dif­fi­cult con­stituen­cy,” the let­ter said. “We have done so out of gen­uine be­lief in the UNC vi­sion for Trinidad and To­ba­go. How­ev­er, re­cent events have made it clear that in­tegri­ty and prin­ci­ple are no longer val­ued with­in the par­ty's lead­er­ship.”

The let­ter added that the fi­nal break­ing point came af­ter com­ments made by Alexan­der fol­low­ing the death of  Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian and her two chil­dren. The ex­ec­u­tive did not quote the re­marks but said they were “ab­hor­rent and rep­re­hen­si­ble… not just cal­lous, but out­right dis­grace­ful.”

“By align­ing with such a per­son, the UNC lead­er­ship is forc­ing its mem­bers in­to silent en­dorse­ment of these dis­gust­ing state­ments,” the ex­ec­u­tive wrote. “This is some­thing we refuse to be com­plic­it in.”

The let­ter con­tin­ued, “We can­not, in good con­science, re­main part of an ex­ec­u­tive that is be­ing co­erced in­to aban­don­ing its prin­ci­ples.”

The res­ig­na­tion comes as the PEP launched its can­di­dates yes­ter­day. The UNC is work­ing in tan­dem with the PEP to field can­di­dates in con­stituen­cies tra­di­tion­al­ly held by the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment. Alexan­der has con­firmed he will con­test Port of Spain North/St Ann’s West un­der a PEP-UNC arrange­ment, di­rect­ly chal­leng­ing Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young.

The Diego Mar­tin North East ex­ec­u­tive said the UNC must re­flect on its cur­rent tra­jec­to­ry be­fore “it alien­ates the very peo­ple who have fought to keep it strong.”

“The UNC must re­turn to its foun­da­tion­al val­ues,” the let­ter said, “or it risks los­ing the trust and sup­port of those who have ded­i­cat­ed their time and ef­fort to its suc­cess.”

We have reached out to UNC po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and are await­ing com­ment.