A female UNC supporter was struck on her shoulder by a missile that was thrown into the crowd at a meeting in Couva last night. Arouca resident Joanne Mora, who was seated in the front row at the meeting in the Couva car park, was left nursing an injury to her left shoulder after she was struck by a heavy metallic object around 8 pm. The object was hurled over the fenced stage area while UNC Couva South candidate Rudranath Indarsingh was delivering his address. It first struck Maureen Warner, wife of UNC chairman Jack Warner who was seated next to Mora.
Other members of the crowd, who did not know that an object was thrown, continued to cheer loudly as Indarsingh spoke about the non-presentation of lands which were promised to former Caroni (1975) workers. Police officers immediately rushed to Mora's aid and took possession of the object before leading her away from the crowd. Speaking to members of the media, Mora said the incident happened quickly. "I can't believe it happened... It all happened so fast," she said, while Maureen Warner applied an ice pack to her shoulder. Warner said the object had to be thrown with a considerable amount of force to cause Mora such pain.
The incident came on the heels of protest action during a recent UNC meeting in St Joseph and reports that a $5 million hit was placed on UNC political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar. Also PNM candidate for the Arouca/Maloney seat Alicia Hospedales was doused with red paint during a walkabout on Wednesday. Speaking last night, Persad-Bissessar issued another call to Prime Minister Patrick Manning to debate her on the nation's pressing issues. She said that nation's murder rate was higher than that of New York, and its crime detection rate the lowest in the world. Manning, during a recent walkabout in Tarodale Heights, located in his San Fernando East constituency, said he had no interest in debating Persad-Bissessar and he preferred to walk and meet the residents of the nation's constituencies. "If you are man enough, I challenge you man to woman to debate me on the issues," Persad Bissessar shouted, amidst screams and cheers from her supporters.
"I am woman, but I am not afraid of you. I will match you word for word, plan for plan and vision for vision," she added. Persad-Bissessar said should she be elected Prime Minister, one of her main focuses would be to implement a special court geared at expediting the trials of public officials. She said special legislation would be passed to ensure that the trials of public officials charged with misconduct would be dealt with as matters of priority. "I call this swift justice, and the cases will be dealt with in record-breaking time," she said.