Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va

Swear­ing that the PNM nev­er paid any bribes to any UNC coun­cil­lor to cross the floor, San Fer­nan­do May­or Ju­nia Re­grel­lo says any­one want­i­ng to join an or­ga­nized par­ty should join the PNM.

Re­grel­lo, who is the PNM's cam­paign man­ag­er, was speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia as can­di­dates filed nom­i­na­tions at Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do.

Re­fer­ring to the UNC's can­di­date Ken­rick Ser­rette who wore a bright pink suit to file nom­i­na­tions, Re­grel­lo said peo­ple in the UNC were ashamed to wear their UNC colours.

Mak­ing a sign across his chest, Re­grel­lo said: "I swear to God that no mon­ey passed to any can­di­date to cross the floor."

Re­grel­lo said the three UNC coun­cil­lors- Samuel Sankar, Mar­cus Gird­harie and Shel­don Gar­cia, as well as the UNC's chief econ­o­mist Sen­a­tor Tarhaqa Obi­ka- all switched sides to the PNM of their own vo­li­tion.

Re­grel­lo, who is friends with Gird­harie, said he knew that Gird­harie had been dis­sat­is­fied with the UNC be­fore his crossover ear­li­er this month.

" I have been speak­ing to Mar­cus Gird­harie for two years and I was well aware of his dis­en­chant­ment," Re­grel­lo said.

He added: "Mar­cus is frus­trat­ed with a lack of poli­cies on their (UNC) part. He is a very strong coun­cil­lor who wants to make a dif­fer­ence in his com­mu­ni­ty. He saw the ben­e­fits that can come from join­ing the PNM."

Re­grel­lo al­so said the PNM will ben­e­fit from the ideas that the for­mer UNC mem­bers will bring.

He al­so drew ref­er­ence to the man­ner in which both par­ties filed nom­i­na­tions. The PNM had a mu­sic truck, Kaiso Moko Jumbies, and about 50 sup­port­ers. The UNC had ap­prox­i­mate­ly two dozen peo­ple and they blew whis­tles and waved flags.

" If we look at the PNM, it is a cadre of dy­nam­ic di­verse peo­ple. The UNC showed up with can­di­dates that peo­ple don't even know. Some of them were too em­bar­rassed to wear their yel­low. We, how­ev­er, are cel­e­brat­ing our pur­pose."

Mean­while, UNC can­di­date Ken­rick Ser­rette de­fend­ed his choice of wardrobe say­ing: " I be­lieve an in­di­vid­ual is who they are based on how they dress. I am a bright in­di­vid­ual and I like to bright­en peo­ple up. When they see me, I am that bright en­er­gy that they need." He said he plans to bring de­vel­op­ment to youths.

How­ev­er, he could not out­line any projects planned if he should win the seat. He said, "As the time gets clos­er, every­thing will man­i­fest."