Sto­ry by SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Res­i­dents of Or­ange Val­ley staged a protest demon­stra­tion on Fri­day, call­ing on Kam­la Per­sad- Bisses­sar, po­lit­i­cal leader of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), to re­in­stat­ed Ra­mona Ram­di­al as the par­ty’s can­di­date for Cou­va North.

Naz­i­ma Ramdeo, res­i­dent of Or­ange Val­ley, whose son was one of sev­en peo­ple from the com­mu­ni­ty who were mur­dered by pi­rates on Ju­ly 25, 2019, said she is up­set over the par­ty’s choice of Ravi Rati­ram.

“I’m un­hap­py,” she told Guardian Me­dia. “She [Ra­mona Ram­di­al] helped us a lot dur­ing the be­reave­ment of my son Shi­va Ramdeo… Miss Ra­mona helped us a lot dur­ing the time of our grief. She helped us to pro­vide; she came for the fu­ner­al. She helped us a lot.”

Naz­i­ma Ramdeo is threat­en­ing to with­hold her vote for the UNC and is en­cour­ag­ing oth­ers not to vote for the par­ty in the up­com­ing elec­tions, be­cause of the side-lin­ing of Ra­mona Ram­di­al.

Mother of a murdered fisherman, Nazima Ramdeo, speaks with the media on Friday, on residents protest demonstration at Orange Valley for their MP, Ramona Ramdial. (Image: SHASTRI BOODAN)

SHASTRI BOODAN

Kelvin Ra­jku­mar, a fish­er­man from Brick­field, said the UNC ex­pects the peo­ple to vote for any “ob­ject” cast be­fore them.

“We had a per­form­ing, car­ing MP and the par­ty top move her just like that,” Ra­jku­mar said.

As far as Ra­jku­mar is con­cerned, Ra­mona Ram­di­al spoke on be­half of the fish­er­men when they were killed, while Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar failed to show up at any time dur­ing that pe­ri­od.

Kelvin Rajkumar speaks with the media on Friday, on residents protest demonstration at Orange Valley for their MP, Ramona Ramdial. (Image: SHASTRI BOODAN)

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Sangee­ta Sook­nanan, a res­i­dent of Or­ange Val­ley, who lost her broth­er-in-law Alex Him­raj Sook­nanan in the Ju­ly 2019 pi­rate at­tack, said she was dis­grun­tled over the par­ty’s choice.

“This guy they go­ing and bring… we don’t know him at all,” she stat­ed. “We don’t know his back­ground. Just to push she out and take he, they’re not get­ting my vote at all.”

Sangeeta Sooknanan speaks with the media on Friday, on residents protest demonstration at Orange Valley for their MP, Ramona Ramdial. (Image: SHASTRI BOODAN)

SHASTRI BOODAN

Mean­while, Or­lan­do Nages­sar, the Chair­man of the UNC’s Cou­va North Ex­ec­u­tive, said an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the protest would have to take place be­fore any of­fi­cial state­ment on the mat­ter is is­sued.

Nages­sar al­so de­nied there was any fric­tion con­cern­ing the par­ty’s choice of can­di­date.

“My­self and oth­er mem­bers of the ex­ec­u­tive walked with the can­di­date, Mr Rati­ram, through Wa­ter­loo on Thurs­day. He was well re­ceived by all the res­i­dents of the area who were more than hap­py to see him. There was no prob­lem,” he as­sert­ed.

When con­tact­ed, Ra­mona Ram­di­al told Guardian Me­dia she was un­aware of any protest and could not com­ment on the mat­ter.