We Hear to Stay.. We shall Prevail

Bas: UNC-A name here to stay

Juhel Browne jbrowne@trinidadexpress.com


Saturday, December 8th 2007


Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday says the name of his party, the United National Congress Alliance (UNC-A), is here to stay, even though all of its 15 MPs are members of the immediate past majority Opposition party, the United National Congress (UNC).

In an interview with the Express yesterday, Panday said the executive had decided to keep the UNC-A name, adopted for the November 5 general election after the party entered into an alliance with several other parties, as the party prepares for the opening ceremony of the Ninth Parliament on December 17.

"Yes" he said.

The leaders of the Democratic National Assembly (DNA), Democratic Party of Trinidad and Tobago (DPTT), National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) and Laventille for Laventillians (LFL) that were part of the UNC-A did not win the seats they contested in the general election

DNA co-founder Dr Kirk Meighoo was unsuccessful in his bid for the Chaguanas East seat on the UNC-A ticket, as was DPTT political leader Steve Alvarez in Diego Martin Central seat, NAR political leader Dr Carson Charles in St Joseph and LFL leader Lennox Smith in Laventille East/Morvant seat.

Panday said despite this fact, there were no plans to drop the word Alliance off of the United National Congress Alliance.

"No. We intend to contest the local government election under the UNC Alliance (banner)," Panday said.

The Local Government elections are due in July 2008, after having been postponed by the Prime Minister Patrick Manning administration for the past two year to facilitate a reform of the entire local government system.

As for the UNC-A plans as the Opposition party in the Parliament, Panday said there were several key causes it planned to champion on behalf of the people.

"We would like to see them do something about crime. We would like to see them do something about the traffic jams every morning and every evening. We would like to see better treatment at the hospital," Panday said.

He added: "We would like to see people getting water and electricity and the drains being cleaned but most of all we would like to see people being treated like human beings. We also want to see an end to discrimination."