Prime Ministerial-hopeful Kamla Persad-Bissessar and other major members from the united opposition forces began hammering out their joint manifesto for the 2010 general election last night.
"We said we would put an election strategy team in place for the manifesto and other major issues related to the election and we are here to continue our planning meetings for the rest of the election campaign," Persad-Bissessar told members of the media, during the group's dinner break at 8 pm. Last night's meeting was the first joint election-strategies meeting that the five-member coalition opposition team held together.
It was held at the House of Chan Restaurant in Emerald Plaza from around 6 pm yesterday and continued for more than three hours after. The Guardian learnt that each of the groups prepared its own manifesto and brainstormed together on the issues that would be presented to the electorate. Persad-Bissessar said that the united Opposition forces would unveil the coalition's declaration of political unity at the launch of their joint political platform at Charlie King Junction in Fyzabad around 7 pm tonight.
Among the speakers scheduled are Persad-Bissessar, COP political leader Winston Dookeran, Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) Errol McLeod, Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) political leader Ashworth Jack, National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) chief servant Makandal Daaga, United National Congress (UNC) chairman Jack Warner, UNC deputy political leaders Suruj Rambachan and Roodal Moonilal, and the incumbent UNC MP for the area, Chandresh Sharma. It was indicated that the UNC would be contesting 24 seats, COP 11, MSJ 2, TOP 2 and NJAC 2.