Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

Se­nior Re­porter

eliz­a­beth.gon­za­les@guardian.co.tt

Ten­sions flared over the week­end in Bethes­da as a ver­bal brawl broke out be­tween PNM and TPP sup­port­ers, with TPP can­di­date for Bethes­da/Les Coteaux Zor­isha Hack­ett caught in the mid­dle.

In video footage cir­cu­lat­ing on so­cial me­dia, a TPP sup­port­er was seen re­mov­ing PNM flags from a prop­er­ty to re­place them with TPP flags.

The footage shows the sup­port­er and an­oth­er man in a heat­ed ar­gu­ment in­volv­ing push­ing and ex­ple­tives, while Hack­ett stood near­by.

The video al­so cap­tures a brief ver­bal con­fronta­tion be­tween an­oth­er man and Hack­ett.

Hack­ett ex­plained what hap­pened in a so­cial me­dia post: "On my way to can­vass­ing to­day, [name redact­ed] asked for some flags to place on the prop­er­ty that he is the cus­to­di­an of in Bethes­da. Every­body who knows [name redact­ed] knows he does not sup­port the PNM. As a mat­ter of fact, he usu­al­ly al­lows me to place my bill­board on said prop­er­ty."

She said the con­fronta­tion es­ca­lat­ed when a PNM team mem­ber re­fused to re­move flags.

"One of the team mem­bers was com­ply­ing un­til an­oth­er sum­moned a younger rel­a­tive of [name redact­ed] in­to a con­fronta­tion. The video shows that con­fronta­tion of both rel­a­tives, but what it doesn’t show is the me­di­a­tion of me and a few oth­er vil­lagers who tried to im­plore both rel­a­tives that this wasn’t nec­es­sary."

Hack­ett added, "How did a sim­ple re­quest of re­moval of flags by the cus­to­di­an of the prop­er­ty end up in­to all this? Be­cause that’s how the PNM op­er­ates – they will do any­thing to push a nar­ra­tive when they’re in des­per­a­tion mode… the peo­ple want al­lyuh red flags off their prop­er­ty. Just move them quick."

The PNM can­di­date chal­leng­ing Hack­ett, Akeel Guy, chose not to com­ment but post­ed on so­cial me­dia: "Di­rec­tion over dis­trac­tion."

Hack­ett al­so ad­dressed the in­ci­dent at the Sun­day night meet­ing in Mo­ri­ah.

She said, "This is test week, they try me yes­ter­day, but I built for this, my back broad."

Mean­while, a TPP sup­port­er post­ed a video on­line yes­ter­day show­ing dam­age to a TPP tent in the same area. The sup­port­er said the in­ci­dent was an at­tempt to burn the tent down.