This coun­try is not ready or pre­pared for a third-par­ty op­tion ac­cord­ing to Gary Grif­fith, Po­lit­i­cal Leader of the Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance (NTA) as he con­ced­ed de­feat at 9.30 last night.

The mood at the NTA head­quar­ters in Mt Lam­bert was qui­et and pen­sive, as the re­sults start­ed to trick­le in about af­ter 7 pm.

Grif­fith had the full sup­port of his fam­i­ly, who kept close to him as the num­bers start­ed to col­late.

The po­lit­i­cal par­ty con­test­ed 17 seats in the Gen­er­al Elec­tion but pre­lim­i­nary re­sults showed it was un­suc­cess­ful in gain­ing any seats.

The con­stituen­cies the par­ty con­test­ed were Aranguez/St Joseph, La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro, To­co/San­gre Grande, San Juan/Barataria, Tu­na­puna, St Au­gus­tine, Arou­ca/Mal­oney, Ari­ma, Diego Marin West, Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral, Diego Mar­tin North/East, Port-of-Spain North, Port-of-Spain South, Point Fortin, San Fer­nan­do West, Ch­agua­nas East and St Ann’s East.

Speak­ing to his can­di­dates and a small group of sup­port­ers, Grif­fith told them this was not a time for the par­ty to be de­spon­dent, or have any de­gree of an­i­mos­i­ty to­wards the coun­try, as the cit­i­zens have made a choice, and it must re­spect it.

“Since 1981, we start­ed with this per­cep­tion of a third par­ty that was the Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion (NAR) and they did not get a seat. In 1991, it con­tin­ued with the NAR on its own, break­ing away from the UNC of which the po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar was a part and they didn’t get a seat. The same thing hap­pened with the Con­gress of the Peo­ple. What we did is pro­vide the coun­try 18 years lat­er as an op­tion,” Grif­fith said.

He not­ed that the NTA has tried to unite T&T and will con­tin­ue to pro­vide that op­por­tu­ni­ty.

“Prob­a­bly if for­mer US pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma de­cides to lead a third par­ty, he might lose his de­posit as well. That is just the way it is in T&T and sim­i­lar to oth­er coun­tries in the Unit­ed States, the same thing with the De­moc­rats and the Re­pub­li­cans and peo­ple will crit­i­cize both,” Grif­fith point­ed out.

Asked by Guardian Me­dia if the NTA was dis­ap­point­ed that it did not make in­roads in the con­stituen­cies the par­ty con­test­ed, Grif­fith said, “Hon­est­ly, it is very dif­fi­cult and I think it is time we need to have polls, sci­en­tif­ic polls. No one knew what was go­ing to hap­pen un­til last night and that is where dif­fi­cul­ty came in. What I can tell you is that the NTA, I mean, as I’m the on­ly po­lit­i­cal leader in the coun­try, I can tell you that the NTA has walked in with its can­di­dates. We hon­est­ly did not know, but we have no re­grets.”

As to whether the NTA would be con­test­ing the 2030 gen­er­al elec­tions, Grif­fith quick­ly said that the de­ci­sion is not go­ing to be based on him alone.

Grif­fith ex­plained that his style is dif­fer­ent. He said as a for­mer mil­i­tary of­fi­cer, he is a team play­er.

“It’s go­ing to be based on the rank and file of the NTA. What they de­cide to do, how they in­tend to go in what di­rec­tion, whether it may very well be they may want an­oth­er po­lit­i­cal leader. I am al­ways pre­pared to move aside for some­one who may have the ca­pac­i­ty to build a par­ty, to build a team. That is what I am. I am not here. I do not own the NTA. All I am is a hum­ble ser­vant, rep­re­sent­ing the NTA as the po­lit­i­cal leader,” Grif­fith stressed.