Kim­ber­ly Mack­han

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is ap­peal­ing to the pop­u­la­tion to "move for­ward" and vote Patrick Man­ning's Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) out of of­fice in Trinidad and To­ba­go's next gen­er­al elec­tion. She said that there was "the re­al pos­si­bil­i­ty" of a gen­er­al elec­tion be­ing an­nounced in "the very new fu­ture," and that "many are sug­gest­ing at the next sit­ting of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives," which is card­ed for Fri­day.�"I did not en­ter this race to be Op­po­si­tion Leader. I re­peat­ed­ly said that dur­ing my elec­tion cam­paign in Jan­u­ary. I am of the view that the coun­try needs change, a new gov­ern­ment, new per­spec­tives on gov­er­nance, new hope and new vi­sion," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

"I be­lieve that I can de­liv­er this to the coun­try. I be­lieve that the UNC can re­build Trinidad and To­ba­go, and so...I seek your en­dorse­ment and sup­port."

She added that Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) chair­man Jack Warn­er ac­ti­vat­ed the UNC Na­tion­al Cam­paign Team over the week­end, and was sched­uled to present a re­port for the con­sid­er­a­tion of the na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive to­mor­row. Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so re­it­er­at­ed that the UNC set an April 12 dead­line to have nom­i­na­tions com­plet­ed for can­di­dates in­ter­est­ed in con­test­ing po­si­tions for the par­ty in a gen­er­al elec­tion. She said the screen­ing of po­ten­tial can­di­dates would be­gin around April 13 and the screen­ing com­mit­tee was ap­point­ed "in keep­ing with the UNC con­sti­tu­tion."�"Our na­tion is at a de­ci­sion point. We can�stay in the same place, with all the in­ef­fi­cien­cies, cor­rup­tion, crime, ab­sence of trans­paren­cy, and so on. "We can go back­ward, which I think we will be do­ing if the cur­rent gov­ern­ment is al­lowed to re­tain of­fice.

"Or we can go for­ward. I am con­vinced that the on­ly way we can go is for­ward. We owe it to our chil­dren and to their chil­dren." Per­sad-Bisses­sar not­ed that there was "a pe­ri­od of great de­vel­op­ments in the po­lit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic land­scape of Trinidad and To­ba­go" since she and her Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive came and since she be­came Leader of the Op­po­si­tion. "Dur­ing this time, the Gov­ern­ment has been brought to its knees by po­lit­i­cal pres­sure, in­ves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ism, and pub­lic out­rage at rev­e­la­tions of mis­man­age­ment and ev­i­dence of cor­rup­tion in high pub­lic of­fice, and the gov­ern­ment's fail­ure to take de­ci­sive ac­tion in the light of this cor­rup­tion and crime in gen­er­al." She was ad­dress­ing at­ten­dees at a UNC fund-rais­er in Lauder­hill City, Flori­da, over the week­end.

It was the sec­ond fund-rais­er that Per­sad-Bisses­sar at­tend­ed in Flori­da over the past three months. "As you know, the first was in Jan­u­ary, and I had come here seek­ing your sup­port to be po­lit­i­cal leader of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress. "I am proud to say that with your help,�that ini­tia­tive met with re­sound­ing suc­cess. "Based on your his­to­ry of sup­port­ing a win­ner, I have once more come to seek your sup­port, tonight, to be­come the Prime Min­is­ter of Trinidad and To­ba­go." (KM)