Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

The fi­nal push is on this week to­wards next Mon­day's Gen­er­al Elec­tion and the votes from 16,748 spe­cial vot­ers - out of the to­tal 1,154, 708 elec­torate - will from to­day be­gin in Spe­cial Vot­ing ex­er­cis­es un­til Sun­day to start build­ing the out­come. Re­cent hot pro­jec­tions over­head, last Sat­ur­day the height­ened fir­ing" con­tin­ued with colour­ful de­liv­ery to match the "Yel­low" and "Red" can­nons. Here's what you may have missed:

UNC leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar at last Sat­ur­day's La Hor­quet­ta meet­ing:

"The PNM's rit­u­al for elec­tion is smears, in­sults, and ex­cus­es in full swing! The whole coun­try is wit­ness­ing a cow­ard­ly re­treat in­to the stale vic­tim­hood strat­e­gy, the blame game rhetoric, fake AI and in­vo­ca­tion of the tired and out­dat­ed race card. On (Sun­day) Guardian Me­dia will be­gin run­ning a sup­pres­sion poll ... Those polls aren't cred­i­ble, no mat­ter who they say is win­ning...we've been con­duct­ing in­de­pen­dent polling week­ly since last year... every­body said Kam­la not ready - well, we ready like Fred­dy ... Our polling clear­ly shows the UNC will win the gen­er­al elec­tions!"

Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young at last Sat­ur­day's Moru­ga meet­ing:

"Stay fo­cused! Start­ing (Sun­day), the UNC and its el­e­ments will step up their mis­in­for­ma­tion cam­paign - watch! They'll come with false, fake polls. Be­cause PNM's tim­ing and strat­e­gy is work­ing, mov­ing up­wards - to vic­to­ry! ... They want to fool PNM and peo­ple who want to as­so­ciate with us as win­ners that all of a sud­den they go­ing some­where! The PNM's lat­est sci­en­tif­ic poll says UNC un­der pres­sure in San Juan, Ch­agua­nas East, Ma­yaro, Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la and the sweet­est part is once you stay fo­cused Moru­ga/ Table­land is with the PNM! Bring it home! Bring it home! Bring it home! They've giv­en up! Bring it home!"

UNC Cou­va North can­di­date Jear­lean John at last Sat­ur­day's La Hor­quet­ta meet­ing:

"It is writ­ten: Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar will be the sec­ond fe­male prime min­is­ter! ... but ... it won't be easy, do not cel­e­brate as if you've won al­ready be­cause the PNM is loose and des­per­ate! They're go­ing crazy, the polls are telling them just what they're telling us - they're gone! ... all kin­da peo­ple call­ing me now, (but) if in 10 years you didn't re­mem­ber mih num­ber - please keep it for­got­ten!"

PNM La Hor­quet­ta can­di­date Fos­ter Cum­mings at last Sat­ur­day's Moru­ga meet­ing:

"...The cur­tain fly­ing by the win­dow - no yel­low! We want no yel­low, noth­ing look­ing close to yel­low! For the next few weeks, we ban yel­low un­til af­ter the elec­tion! Don't wear yel­low! If you have a nice yel­low dress you ac­cus­tomed wear­ing, put it in the cup­board and wear it af­ter April 28! Be­cause some­body might feel you en­dors­ing UNC. You have an out­fit you bought long time for East­er and you like a lil yel­low - put it away. Wear it on the 29th!"

UNC Mal­abar/Mau­si­ca can­di­date Do­minic Smith at last Sat­ur­day's La Ho­quet­ta meet­ing:

"It have a fel­la in Mal­abar/Mau­si­ca too called 'Do­minic'. Will the re­al 'Do­minic' please stand up - I'm right here be­fore you.' He have a slo­gan 'Rock­ing with Ro­main' but the com­mu­ni­ty tell me 'Ro­maine you bet­ter rock so!' From north to south, east to west peo­ple have yel­low fever! ...The Bal­isi­er now turn yel­low ... the writ­ing is on the wall! That Red Wall they speak­ing about is now a Yel­low wall!"

PNM To­ba­go East can­di­date Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy at last Sat­ur­day's To­ba­go meet­ing:

"...When they telling you Ayan­na and Sham­fa didn't de­liv­er - every time we en­sure a boy or girl in your vil­lage got their school­books, we did some­thing for you... bought a ham­per for your neigh­bour, en­sure your roads and drains were fixed ... To­ba­go, when did we get to this place where un­less it was in your pock­et di­rect­ly, you say we ent de­liv­er?! When I fed your chil­dren and your friend's chil­dren, when Sham­fa and I ad­vo­cat­ed for more wa­ter...how dare you To­ba­go, say the PNM didn't de­liv­er?"

UNC Cou­va North can­di­date Jear­lean John at last Sat­ur­day's La Hor­quet­ta meet­ing:

"...Stu­art Young is the On-the-Job Train­ing Prime Min­is­ter, every­thing that Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says she's go­ing to do, he runs and he tries to up­man­ship her and an­nounces it. But we know Stu­art Young can't do any­thing, he's just an an­nounc­er - an OJT Prime Min­is­ter ... Row­ley do every­thing to hand over to this child and he like a child with match­es - he bun down de whole damn house and we liv­ing the ash­es!"

Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young at last Sat­ur­day's Moru­ga meet­ing:

"Dey melt­down! Can­di­date cry­ing in San Fer­nan­do West ... want to give up be­cause Faris putting a lick­ing on them. Tu­na­puna - their can­di­date gone! In Grande, their can­di­date can't even talk prop­er­ly, but when they be­come des­per­ate it's al­ways a re­ver­sion to race. Hear him on the plat­form sayin 'de Prime Min­is­ter is Chi­nee, run de Chi­nee out­ta town!' Well part­ner you ha' to come bet­ter than dat! Be­cause you see in T&T, dey love de Chi­nee!'

PNM leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley at last Sat­ur­day's To­ba­go meet­ing:

"You the peo­ple of To­ba­go: un­der­stand some­thing very clear­ly, you have ab­solute­ly noth­ing to gain by hand­ing the two To­ba­go seats to Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and the UNC! Be­cause if Robin­son as NAR leader lead­ing 33 couldn't get the UNC crowd to give To­ba­go more au­ton­o­my, it will not be had by these peo­ple!"