Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has made it clear that the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) will not be “in any ac­com­mo­da­tion” with Gary Grif­fith’s Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance (NTA) ahead of the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tions.

She made this clear yes­ter­day, in re­sponse to ques­tions on the re­cent amal­ga­ma­tion of the NTA, Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) and HOPE po­lit­i­cal par­ties in­to the Pro­gres­sive Al­liance (PA).

Per­sad-Bisses­sar, how­ev­er, con­firmed that dis­cus­sions had been held with COP and HOPE mem­bers.

“It’s pub­lic in­for­ma­tion that the UNC will not be in any ac­com­mo­da­tion with Gary Grif­fith and the NTA for GE 2025, that is def­i­nite, it’s been made clear over and over. The UNC Na­tex felt that it was our re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to the elec­torate to of­fer the COP and HOPE a fair hear­ing, we did our du­ty and reached out for dis­cus­sions. They have cho­sen a dif­fer­ent ap­proach with­out the UNC and we re­spect their choice.”

She not­ed that re­quests to the COP and NTA for in­for­ma­tion sur­round­ing their par­ties were not read­i­ly ac­ces­si­ble.

“What is your par­ty’s reg­is­tered mem­ber­ship? What is your mem­ber­ship in each con­stituen­cy? Who elect­ed your par­ty’s ex­ec­u­tive? Who elect­ed your par­ty’s po­lit­i­cal leader? When was your last in­ter­nal elec­tions? What is the scale of your par­ty’s po­lit­i­cal in­fra­struc­ture? These are some of the ques­tions that the pub­lic and the UNC has asked the COP, NTA and HOPE over the past months but no an­swers were forth­com­ing.”

The Op­po­si­tion Leader said the trade unions and the Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty (PEP) pro­vid­ed most of the re­quest­ed in­for­ma­tion on their par­ties.

Al­so con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Grif­fith, said the al­liance will not align with par­ties en­gaged in mud­sling­ing.

“What we are not go­ing to be part of is char­ac­ter as­sas­si­na­tion, de­mon­is­ing peo­ple, mak­ing vul­gar re­marks from one po­lit­i­cal leader as­signed and linked to a coali­tion of in­ter­est from the UNC, it is dis­ap­point­ing. I am aware of the stan­dards of Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and UNC and that kind of gut­ter pol­i­tics is ex­act­ly why half of the coun­try wants the PNM re­moved in the first place.”

Grif­fith warned against join­ing with the PEP.

“To have some­one like Phillip Alexan­der, where every com­ment is to at­tack, de­stroy and dis­cred­it, we want no part of that, that is why he was nev­er in­vit­ed to the al­liance of these par­ties.”

Mean­while, new COP in­ter­im leader Prakash Ra­mad­har said his re-en­try to the po­lit­i­cal gayelle was the re­sult of over­whelm­ing calls to re­turn and chal­lenge the PNM at the polls. He did not shoot down any fu­ture al­liances with the UNC.

“The UNC is the dom­i­nant Op­po­si­tion, they are the op­po­si­tion to the Gov­ern­ment and cer­tain­ly any suc­cess­ful at­tempt at restor­ing what is right and prop­er in this coun­try must in­clude all of the po­lit­i­cal en­ti­ties who are will­ing and con­duct them­selves in a man­ner that is open to ac­com­mo­dat­ing each oth­er and I do not like what I’ve been see­ing, some of the fric­tion un­nec­es­sar­i­ly, but part of the func­tion of the COP is to bridge gaps and make peace and en­sure that the so­ci­ety suc­ceeds.”

Ad­dress­ing the lat­est al­liance of par­ties, po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Win­ford James yes­ter­day said the resur­fac­ing of third par­ties dur­ing the elec­tion sea­son sug­gest­ed that the elec­torate was con­sid­er­ing change.

“There are forces out there re­gard­ed by the pop­u­la­tion as more hope­ful and su­pe­ri­or to what is on of­fer by the main­stream par­ties. The PNM has been here for near­ly 10 years and peo­ple don’t see them as hav­ing any fresh­ness or any new­ness or any in­no­v­a­tive so­lu­tions and while die-hards will re­main die-hards, I get the im­pres­sion peo­ple from both par­ties are dis­sat­is­fied,” James said.