PP Loses Ground

The Opposition People’s National Movement continued this year’s victory streak in local government elections, winning eight regional corporations, including retaking five it had lost in the 2010 local government polls. “We have won this election, we are on the way to winning the general election…the Prime Minister should call the general election now, having lost her mandate,” PNM leader Keith Rowley said at Balisier House, Port-of-Spain. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s People’s Partnership, though losing overall to the PNM, retained at least five UNC “heartland” corporations and staved off adversary Jack Warner’s Independent Liberal Party. “The UNC has retained its base,” a beaming Persad-Bissessar said at, speaking alongside successful candidates in Siparia. “We’ve held our base. This isn’t a Government or Opposition victory, it’s a true people’s victory.” This is the Partnership’s third successive defeat after the January Tobago House of Assembly election, which the PNM won, and the July Chaguanas West by-election won by Warner. However, Warner’s ILP, which failed to capture any corporations, won only two of the eight seats in the Chaguanas borough and his Felicity stronghold in Chaguanas West returned to the UNC. Of the remaining six Chaguanas seats, the PP and the PNM each took three. ILP chairman Robin Montano conceded overall defeat saying, “The results show the country has retreated to tribalism…so we have failed. It’s clear from the results we didn’t win. But we’ll try again tomorrow.” Warner later said the ILP has become T&T’s third political force, is “here to stay” and would continue building.

Courtesy: www.trinidadgauardian.com