RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Cel­e­bra­tions con­tin­ued af­ter dawn yes­ter­day as Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment strong­holds of La Brea and Point Fortin went to the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress, mark­ing a his­toric shift that left res­i­dents reel­ing with dis­be­lief, awe, and ju­bi­la­tion.

Ernesto Ke­sar from the Oil­field Work­ers Trade Union and Clyde El­der from the Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Work­ers Trade Union se­cured un­prece­dent­ed vic­to­ries in Point Fortin and La Brea, two con­stituen­cies long plagued by pover­ty, un­em­ploy­ment, and ne­glect.

At Point Fortin, staunch PNM sup­port­er Judy Ann John said: “I re­al hap­py for Ke­sar. You know I am a staunch PNM but we suf­fer­ing too much.”

In La Brea, Reynold Mod­este said he was hap­py for the UNC win.

“Kam­la has a track record of keep­ing her promis­es so we will wait for bet­ter times. I am a pen­sion­er and I can­not pay prop­er­ty tax you know,” he said.

Farmer Azard Baksh said he felt ju­bi­lant know­ing that an agri­cul­tur­al court was in the pipeline.

“Too much lar­ce­ny,” he said.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Ke­sar said the vic­to­ry was un­ex­pect­ed.

“Right now, I have not processed this en­tire sit­u­a­tion. The cam­paign has been hard and gru­elling but it brought re­sults.”

He said the votes in the UNC ar­eas from Cap-de-ville to Ica­cos had dou­bled and tripled, while votes in the PNM strong­holds were far less than in the 2020 elec­tions. He said this meant that many PNM vot­ers did not cast their bal­lots. Kezar said youths drove his cam­paign to suc­cess.

“We had over 106 peo­ple walk­ing with me. We didn’t pay them, they came as vol­un­teers,” he re­vealed.

Ke­sar said his cam­paign fo­cused on the is­sues fac­ing the av­er­age cit­i­zen.

He said the vic­to­ry rep­re­sent­ed more than a par­ty win. “Peo­ple have been beat­en eco­nom­i­cal­ly, so­cial­ly, and po­lit­i­cal­ly for the last sev­en to nine years. Peo­ple just de­cid­ed, ‘Let’s try some­thing dif­fer­ent.’ They took a chance on Ernesto Kezar. And by Almighty God, I won.”

Ke­sar’s vic­to­ry marked the first time the area vot­ed for the UNC in its elec­toral his­to­ry. On­ly back in 1986 Sel­by Wil­son of the Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion (NAR) wres­tled the seat away from the PNM.

In La Brea, El­der said the UNC vic­to­ry was his­toric. “Nev­er be­fore has an op­po­si­tion UNC won the seat,” he said.

El­der, who had just sev­en weeks to pre­pare, said he was not sur­prised.

He said the mood in La Brea was one of dis­be­lief and eu­pho­ria. “There’s that his­toric feat of at­tempt­ing to win the seat for so many years and not do­ing it. Now to cross the line and get over the line to that vic­to­ry — peo­ple just ab­solute­ly elat­ed. It’s al­most like a sur­re­al feel­ing.”

Asked about his pri­or­i­ties, El­der said, “The main is­sues are un­em­ploy­ment, un­der­em­ploy­ment, and pover­ty.”

As a labour ad­vo­cate, El­der said he would push for change to labour laws.

Kezar won by a mar­gin of over 300 votes, while El­der won by over 700 votes based on pre­lim­i­nary EBC fig­ures.

Mean­while, for­mer Min­is­ter of Tourism Ran­dall Mitchell con­ced­ed de­feat as he ex­pressed hu­mil­i­ty and grat­i­tude. In a mes­sage to con­stituents, Mitchell said, “Whilst this is not the re­sult we had hoped for, I ac­cept it with hu­mil­i­ty and grace. The peo­ple have spo­ken, and I re­spect their voice.” He thanked his sup­port­ers for their trust and ded­i­ca­tion.

Mitchell pledged to con­tin­ue serv­ing his com­mu­ni­ty and con­tribut­ing to na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment, say­ing the work to up­lift La Brea and T&T will con­tin­ue.