Cit­i­zens Al­liance (CA) could have giv­en the PNM a good run for their mon­ey, if its mem­bers had re­mained as a po­lit­i­cal par­ty.

This is the view of busi­ness­man Pe­ter George, for­mer deputy leader of CA.

Head­ed by for­mer fi­nance min­is­ter, Wen­dell Mot­t­ley, CA threw in the tow­el af­ter the par­ty's de­feat in the 2001 gen­er­al elec­tion.

Mot­t­ley is now man­ag­ing di­rec­tor at Cred­it Su­isse in the US.

George, for­mer sec­re­tary of CA, said hav­ing emerged with­out any seats, the ma­jor­i­ty of CA ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers be­came dis­en­chant­ed and de­cid­ed to call it a day.

"The ma­jor­i­ty of mem­bers felt there was no room for a third par­ty," he re­called.

George, who did not agree with the mem­bers, ar­gued that this was the par­ty's first try at the polls, and that they should have fought it to the end.

"It was our first sal­vo, and we could have gone on to bet­ter things. But they didn't see it that way."

George felt if Mot­t­ley had re­mained as CA's leader, the coun­try would have been in a far bet­ter po­si­tion to­day.

"Mot­t­ley could have played a piv­otal role to­day, had he stuck things out. We could have giv­en the PNM a good run for their mon­ey. I am quite sure about that."

George said T&T was yearn­ing for change, be­cause our lead­ers were not liv­ing up to good gov­er­nance.

"They are not giv­ing peo­ple their wish­es. They are on­ly study­ing their egos. What we need are new and fresh faces to emerge."

(SH)