SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

First came wor­ried faces. Then sad looks. Dis­ap­point­ment, shock, and un­con­trol­lable tears fol­lowed.

This was the scene at the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) head­quar­ters at Bal­isi­er House, Port-of-Spain, last night.

Sup­port­ers, who had gath­ered in an­tic­i­pa­tion of a Gen­er­al Elec­tion win for the par­ty, were left heart­bro­ken af­ter a crush­ing de­feat to the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC).

Af­ter six weeks of in­tense cam­paign­ing lead­ing up to yes­ter­day’s nail-bit­ing count­ing of votes, the out­come was too much to bear for the hun­dreds who had con­verged on Tran­quil­i­ty Street.

As PNM leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley con­ced­ed de­feat around 10.15 pm, Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young was quick­ly sur­round­ed by par­ty faith­ful. They em­braced him, many with teary eyes.

Ad­dress­ing the me­dia, Dr Row­ley said, “It ap­pears the PNM will end up with an op­po­si­tion in the or­der of ten to 12 seats.”

“We are here for you,” one woman shout­ed.

Try­ing to keep a brave face, Young re­spond­ed with de­ter­mi­na­tion: “PNM peo­ple! We are go­ing to re­build and come back stronger. I will fight hard for this coun­try and you. Get ready!”

“Stu­ar­ty! Stu­ar­ty! Stu­ar­ty,” the crowd chant­ed in uni­son, try­ing to spur him on.

Run­ning to­ward Young with her arms out­stretched, PNM stal­wart Mel­ba Box­ill, from Mt Lam­bert, told him she was heart­bro­ken and sad.

“I am so sor­ry,” she said, wrap­ping her arms around him.

Her words touched those around.

Young hugged Box­ill to cheer her up, but she was al­ready in tears.

“You did not de­serve this. I am so dis­ap­point­ed,” she cried, as Young walked away with de­ject­ed sup­port­ers trail­ing be­hind him.

“I am an­gry. This should not have hap­pened. They put Stu­art in the li­on’s mouth,” Box­ill added.

Ear­li­er, be­fore Row­ley had con­ced­ed, Box­ill de­scribed the elec­tion re­sults as a close call. She paced the floor rest­less­ly, sens­ing trou­ble.

“You could feel it on the ground. A lot of youths say they were not vot­ing. The PNM did not come down to the peo­ple on the ground. They were ne­glect­ed ... noth­ing trick­led down to them,” she ex­plained.

Box­ill al­so point­ed fin­gers at Dr Row­ley for the loss.

“Let us deal with it straight up. He leave too much of a bur­den on Stu­art Young and the rest of the PNM. Even if the PNM wins by one seat, he is still to be blamed.”

By this time, some sup­port­ers were wip­ing tears from their faces, con­soled by fam­i­ly and friends as they left Bal­isi­er House.

De­spite the de­spair, oth­ers re­mained hope­ful.

Look­ing on in dis­be­lief, one sup­port­er said, “We are strong like the bal­isi­er. We went through many bat­tles. Some we lost and won. I want to see Kam­la de­liv­er on all those promis­es she made on the elec­tion cam­paign.”

An­oth­er shout­ed, “I pre­dict the UNC will not last five years. PNM will come back in pow­er soon. You mark my words.”

Through­out the night, the mood at head­quar­ters was nei­ther up­beat nor cel­e­bra­to­ry. Sup­port­ers dressed in red hud­dled in small groups, qui­et­ly dis­cussing what had gone wrong.

Cool­ers with drinks and con­tain­ers of food that had been brought in had to be hasti­ly tak­en out. Ven­dors who had lined the pave­ment with food and snacks made lit­tle to no sales.

A huge stage that had been built for Young to de­liv­er a vic­to­ry speech was nev­er used. Ban­ners bear­ing the pho­tographs of the 41 PNM can­di­dates flut­tered in the breeze.

It was a short elec­tion cam­paign—but a long, painful night for PNM sup­port­ers, who nev­er ex­pect­ed an out­come that would leave them in such ut­ter shock.