Shas­tri Boodan

Po­lit­i­cal leader of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has con­firmed that the par­ty will be con­test­ing 24 seats in the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion. She al­so an­nounced last night that the TOP would con­test the two To­ba­go seats, the Move­ment for So­cial Jus­tice, two seats, and the COP and NJAC would fight the oth­ers. She said the al­lo­ca­tions for seats were signed on Sat­ur­day night when op­po­si­tion forces met at the Kam-Po Restau­rant, Ch­agua­nas.

When asked to com­ment on state­ments made by Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning that coali­tion gov­ern­ments had not worked, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said a ma­jor fac­tor in split­ting the uni­ty process was no longer in the pic­ture. She said: There was one com­mon de­nom­i­na­tor in all those coali­tions, and that com­mon de­nom­i­na­tor is no longer there... there is new lead­er­ship in the UNC, there is a greater trust in the UNC and that will make a fun­da­men­tal dif­fer­ence."