JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Tuesday, March 18, 2025

Lalla says he’s not endorsing PNM but attends Woodford Square rally

by

Shane Superville
Yesterday
20250317

His at­ten­dance at the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s (PNM’s) ral­ly yes­ter­day has stirred some spec­u­la­tion on so­cial me­dia of a pos­si­ble en­dorse­ment of the par­ty, but for­mer Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) mem­ber Lar­ry Lal­la, SC, in­sists that he still isn’t com­mit­ted to any po­lit­i­cal en­ti­ty.

Lal­la, on Face­book yes­ter­day morn­ing shared a post fea­tur­ing the PNM’s 41 can­di­dates for the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tions with a cap­tion where he ex­pressed his in­ten­tion to at­tend the par­ty’s pre­sen­ta­tion cer­e­mo­ny at Wood­ford Square, Port-of-Spain, in the af­ter­noon.

The event was al­so sig­nif­i­cant as it fea­tured out­go­ing Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley as he ad­dressed the pub­lic for the last time in pub­lic of­fice.

On Feb­ru­ary 24, Lal­la sub­mit­ted his res­ig­na­tion let­ter to the UNC’s chair­man Dave Tan­coo, where he cit­ed his in­abil­i­ty to bring about re­forms with­in the par­ty.

He un­suc­cess­ful­ly chal­lenged the par­ty’s lead­er­ship in 2015, 2020 and 2024.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, Lal­la said his pres­ence at the PNM event was not ev­i­dence of any sup­port for the par­ty, but he felt it ap­pro­pri­ate to hear Row­ley’s fi­nal re­marks.

Lal­la said that in ad­di­tion to the his­toric na­ture of the event, he in­tend­ed to at­tend as many dif­fer­ent po­lit­i­cal gath­er­ings as pos­si­ble.

“I in­tend through­out this elec­tion pe­ri­od to vis­it meet­ings held by var­i­ous par­ties and hear what is be­ing said and I think every right-think­ing cit­i­zen of our coun­try should do the same.

“I’m not aligned to any par­ty right now but to­day’s a sig­nif­i­cant day be­cause a sig­nif­i­cant event is go­ing to take place, be­cause the Prime Min­is­ter who has been sit­ting for the past ten years is go­ing to make an ex­it speech and I think it’s im­por­tant to hear what he has to say.”

De­spite him not en­dors­ing the PNM, Lal­la said he felt in­com­ing Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young has the po­ten­tial to “make a very good Prime Min­is­ter” and urged the pub­lic to hear what plans he had for the coun­try.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions from re­porters dur­ing Phag­wa cel­e­bra­tions at the Petrotrin Recre­ation Grounds, Clarke Road, Pe­nal, yes­ter­day, UNC leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said of Lal­la’s de­ci­sion, “It’s a free coun­try. A per­son is free to go wher­ev­er they wish.”

A PNM par­ty

Yes­ter­day had been a long day for the PNM as af­ter 10 am, 169 Gen­er­al Coun­cil mem­bers and 750 par­ty group del­e­gates gath­ered at City Hall, Port-of-Spain where the PNM’s 41 can­di­dates were first pre­sent­ed.

With loud cheers for their can­di­dates, PNM mem­bers tapped in­to the Car­ni­val vibes up­ping the tem­po with Bun­ji Gar­lin’s Car­ry It as can­di­dates walked the stage be­gin­ning with Trinci­ty/ Mal­oney can­di­date Camille Robin­son-Reg­is dubbed the “War­rior Queen”. Young was pre­sent­ed last with hands up­raised. The same pat­tern took place at Wood­ford Square which kicked off pro­ceed­ings at 3.30 in­stead of the promised 2 pm.

While some sought shade from the trees, oth­ers with flags in hand rushed stage side for an up-close view of the event.

Laven­tille West can­di­date, Ka­reem Mar­celle,  chipped in­to the Square with Team Ka­reem sup­port­ers. Mu­sic trucks and a cel­e­bra­to­ry at­mos­phere were every­where.

Oth­ers showed sup­port on their T-shirts with slo­gans like Mov­ing with Mukesh Ram­s­ingh in Pointe-a-Pierre; Lisa At­wa­ter for Moru­ga Table­land!; Mov­ing with Man­ning; Faris 2025; Rock­lyn Mo­hammed for Princes Town and Young’s Army.

While sup­port­ers large­ly com­prised the PNM’s tra­di­tion­al base, there was a no­tice­able in­jec­tion of non-tra­di­tion­al back­ing sev­er­al can­di­dates con­test­ing UNC-held con­stituen­cies.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, life­long Princes Town res­i­dent Kevon Sawh said while the con­stituen­cy had the rep­u­ta­tion of be­ing a “strong­hold” for the UNC, he felt that the PNM’s can­di­date for the area Rock­lyn Mo­hammed had a “good chance” of suc­cess.

“He’s a son of the soil, any­body who comes to him he al­ways does his best to help. I’ve known him for quite some time now.

“He’s a calm, friend­ly, re­spectable guy who’s very so­lu­tion-ori­ent­ed.”

Long­time Beetham Gar­dens res­i­dent Al­bert Sprott said he was fa­mil­iar with Mar­celle’s gen­eros­i­ty and his roots in the com­mu­ni­ty, not­ing that while the com­mu­ni­ty may be sad­dened to see Fitzger­ald Hinds leave as MP, they were op­ti­mistic the con­stituen­cy was in good hands.

“I saw Ka­reem grow from the days of kinder­garten right up to now. Even when he was called to the bar right there at the Hall of Jus­tice, he’s a man who has been there right by the side of the com­mu­ni­ty.

—With re­port­ing by Gail Alexan­der


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored