"A sign of a vic­to­ry to come."

This was how Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­scribed the re­sults of the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions last night.

Ad­dress­ing ex­u­ber­ant sup­port­ers at the par­ty's head­quar­ters in Cou­va af­ter the re­sults were con­firmed, save the dis­put­ed San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion where a re­count was or­dered in a four-four tie, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the elec­torate had sent a mes­sage to the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Gov­ern­ment.

"I had asked the peo­ple to send a mes­sage to the Row­ley Gov­ern­ment that there was too much pain and suf­fer­ing and it is time for a change," she said.

"The peo­ple heard and sent the mes­sage to the Row­ley Gov­ern­ment and we trust that the Row­ley Gov­ern­ment will re­ceive that mes­sage and take the nec­es­sary steps to ease the pain and suf­fer­ing."

She said the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress had man­aged to wrest away a dozen seats from the PNM in the elec­tion and promised to con­tin­ue to look out for the needs of the "small man."

"I pledge to con­tin­ue to hold the Row­ley Gov­ern­ment to ac­count and as we cel­e­brate, re­mem­ber this is a sign of a vic­to­ry to come," she told ju­bi­lant sup­port­ers.

Ear­li­er, al­though the camp was al­most de­sert­ed un­til 9 pm, par­ty sup­port­ers flocked to the venue when there was news of a pos­si­ble vic­to­ry, as par­ty ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers had pre­vi­ous­ly an­nounced vic­to­ry in San­gre Grande, and Per­sad-Bisses­sar's im­mi­nent ar­rival was an­nounced.

How­ev­er, lat­er on when it be­came clear there was no vic­to­ry, sup­port­ers still cel­e­brat­ed over the in­roads they had man­aged to make from the pre­vi­ous eight-six loss in the 2013 race.

2010 LGE RE­SULT (11-3)

UNC/PP: Ari­ma; Ch­agua­nas; Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro; Diego Mar­tin; Ma­yaro/Rio Claro; Pe­nal/Debe; Moru­ga/Princes Town; San Fer­nan­do; San­gre Grande; Siparia and Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion.

PNM: Port-of-Spain, Point Fortin and San Juan/Laven­tille.

2013 LGE RE­SULT (8-6)

PNM: Ari­ma; Diego Mar­tin; Port-of-Spain; Point Fortin; San Fer­nan­do; San Juan/Laven­tille; San­gre Grande; Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co.

UNC/PP: Ch­agua­nas; Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro; Moru­ga/Princes Town; Siparia; Pe­nal/Debe and Ma­yaro/Rio Claro.

KAM­LA'S SUC­CESS­ES AND FAIL­URES

Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar was elect­ed leader of the UNC in Jan­u­ary 2010. The par­ty un­der her lead­er­ship, along with its part­ner­ship al­lies, went on to win the Gen­er­al Elec­tion in May 2010 and the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tion in Ju­ly 2010.

By 2013, the par­ty was on a los­ing streak.

Un­der Per­sad-Bisses­sar's lead­er­ship, the UNC-Part­ner­ship lost the 2013 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tion, the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) elec­tion, Ch­agua­nas West by-elec­tion, St Joseph by-elec­tion and the Sep­tem­ber 7, 2015, Gen­er­al Elec­tion. (PNM 23, UNC/COP 18)

In 2015, Per­sad-Bisses­sar staved off a chal­lenge for lead­er­ship of the UNC from a man whom she once iden­ti­fied as her suc­ces­sor, Dr Roodal Mooni­lal