Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

In a build­ing lo­cat­ed just op­po­site to Bryan's Gate, where for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day and his fam­i­ly lives, young UNC en­gi­neer Sta­cy Roop­nar­ine yes­ter­day filed her nom­i­na­tion pa­pers to con­test the Oropouche West seat. None of the Pan­days were present to sup­port 25-year-old Roop­nar­ine. She was ac­com­pa­nied by five sup­port­ers, in­clud­ing her fa­ther Yohan Roop­nar­ine and Syl­van Dook­ie. Un­like oth­er can­di­dates who had tas­sa drums, flags, ban­ners and oth­er para­pher­na­lia, Roop­nar­ine's team on­ly wore yel­low T-shirts. They wait­ed pa­tient­ly for Roop­nar­ine un­til she filed her pa­pers.

In an in­ter­view, Roop­nar­ine said she did not wish to com­ment on the ab­sence of the Pan­days. She said her pri­or­i­ty was to im­prove the plight of the con­stituents of Oropouche West who were bat­tling with flood­ing, poor wa­ter sup­ply and bad roads. Ex­ud­ing con­fi­dence, Roop­nar­ine said she was hum­bled by the op­por­tu­ni­ty to con­test the seat. The seat was won by Pan­day's daugh­ter Mick­ela in the 2007 elec­tion. She se­cured 8,570 votes, com­pared to the PNM 3,692 and COP 4,198 votes.