Kim­ber­ly Mack­han

Sec­re­tary gen­er­al of the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha Sat­narayan Ma­haraj has en­dorsed Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar for po­lit­i­cal leader of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC). "I want to give my bless­ings to Kam­la be­cause I be­lieve she is on the right track and I think there is time for change in the Op­po­si­tion pol­i­tics, time for change in the na­tion­al pol­i­tics," Ma­haraj said. He was in­ter­viewed on Thurs­day night at the Kam­la for Leader pub­lic po­lit­i­cal meet­ing at the Ma­ha Sab­ha's Tu­na­puna Hin­du School. Ma­haraj likened the sig­nif­i­cance of his pres­ence at the meet­ing to be­ing Per­sad-Bisses­sar's host since the school be­long to his Hin­du or­gan­i­sa­tion.

He in­di­cat­ed that he held mem­ber­ship for no po­lit­i­cal or­gan­i­sa­tion, af­ter ques­tions about end­ing po­ten­tial af­fil­i­a­tions with the Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) and re­turn­ing to the UNC be­cause of Per­sad-Bisses­sar. "I was nev­er in any po­lit­i­cal par­ty...I am still not in any po­lit­i­cal par­ty," Ma­haraj said. Two years ago, Ma­haraj faced strong crit­i­cism from mem­bers of his own or­gan­i­sa­tion, af­ter al­le­ga­tions were made that the re­li­gious or­gan­i­sa­tion's re­sources were used to cam­paign for the COP. Ma­ha Sab­ha ex­ec­u­tive mem­ber De­vant Ma­haraj was al­so a COP can­di­date against the UNC's Kelvin Ram­nath in Cou­va South in the gen­er­al elec­tion on No­vem­ber 5, 2007.

When ques­tioned about ral­ly­ing Ma­ha Sab­ha mem­bers in sup­port of Per­sad-Bisses­sar, Ma­haraj said the mem­bers would be able to make their own de­ci­sions from the cam­paigns of each of the three can­di­dates fight­ing to be UNC po­lit­i­cal leader. "They are free to make their choice (and) to lis­ten to the can­di­dates and what they have to say and you judge them," he sad. "So we lis­tened to what every­body had to say...peo­ple will make their own de­ci­sions. "The mem­ber­ship must de­cide that if he (Bas­deo Pan­day) has passed his...if he is no longer ca­pa­ble in lead­er­ship.

Polling sta­tions

The Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress has re­leased the 28 polling sta­tions in the var­i­ous con­stituen­cies for to­mor­row's in­ter­nal elec­tions. They are:

1. Ari­ma, Arou­ca/Mal­oney, Lopinot/Bon Air West–Ari­ma Hin­du School.

2. Barataria, San Juan–Don Miguel Hin­du School.

3. Ca­roni Cen­tral–Freeport Pres­by­ter­ian School.

4. Ca­roni East–Cunu­pia Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School.

5. Ch­agua­nas East–Lendore Hin­du School

6. Ch­agua­nas West–Char­lieville Pres­by­ter­ian School.

7. Cou­va North–Chan­der­nagore Pres­by­ter­ian School.

8. Cou­va South–Bal­main Pres­by­ter­ian School.

9. Cu­mu­to, Man­zanil­la–Groves­nor Pres­by­ter­ian School.

10. D'Abadie/ O'Meara, La Hor­quet­ta- Tal­paro–D' Abadie Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School.

11. Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral, Diego Mar­tin North/East, Diego Mar­tin West–Diego Mar­tin Gov­ern­ment Sec­ondary School.

12. Fyz­abad–Siparia Road KPA School.

13. La Brea, Point Fortin–Rousil­lac Hin­du School.

14. Laven­tille East-Mor­vant, Laven­tille West, Port-of-Spain North/St Ann's West, Port-of-Spain South, St Ann's East–St Paul's Mul­ti­pur­pose Fa­cil­i­ty.

15. Ma­yaro–Rio Claro Hin­du School.

16. Na­pari­ma–Bar­rack­pore Re­gion­al Com­plex.

17. Oropouche East–Par­va­tee Girls' Hin­du School.

18. Oropouche West–Tul­sa Trace Hin­du School.

19. Pointe a Pierre–Union Clax­ton Bay Se­nior Com­pre­hen­sive School.

20. Princess Town North–St Julien Pres­by­ter­ian School.

21. Princess Town South/Table­land– Rochard Dou­glas Pres­by­ter­ian School.

22. San Fer­nan­do East / San Fer­nan­do West–Grant Memo­r­i­al Pres­by­ter­ian School.

23. Siparia–Clarke Rochard Gov­ern­ment School.

24. St Au­gus­tine–Tu­na­puna Hin­du School

25. St Joseph–Aranguez Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre.

26. Tabaquite–Gas­par­il­lo Com­pos­ite School.

27. To­co/San­gre Grande–Guaico Pres­by­ter­ian School.

28. Tu­na­puna–El Do­ra­do North Hin­du School.