The Movement for National Development, headed by former attorney general Garvin Nicholas, is promising to make a dent in all three Diego Martin constituencies.
Undaunted by the results of last year’s Local Government Election, Nicholas says all of the party’s three candidates have been doing the groundwork in the build-up to the August 10 General Election.
“We want Diego Martin to make the difference because for too long Diego Martin has been basically left to fester,” Nicholas told Guardian Media during an interview at his Port-of-Spain office last week.
Instead of progressing, Nicholas said, the area has “regressed” over the last three decades under the People’s National Movement.
The MND was relaunched last year, after being in existence for close to 15 years, to vie in the Local Government Elections. Despite having only won 404 votes overall, Nicholas is optimistic that the party will capture the hearts of many in the forthcoming election.
“In Diego Martin we have one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the country, not because people are excited about politics but they are led to believe that it is a PNM-safe-seat,” he suggested.
He added that the “majority of the people are not happy with the PNM” and the MND will put up a tough fight even with little funds available to the party.
“We do not have an abundance of resources because we are not going out there and getting funding from traditional resources. A lot of our funding is coming out from our pockets and from friends who will give us whatever little to help us with some t-shirts,” he said.
Nicholas contested the Diego Martin North-East seat in 2010 under a United National Congress ticket. He was also attorney general for the People’s Partnership government for six months until the 2015 General Election. He denied wanting to split votes. Three areas of interest for the political party is developing agriculture in the community, uplifting and encouraging youths to venture into the creative arts and infrastructure.
Nicholas is the MND’s candidate for Diego Martin Central. The other candidates are agricultural entrepreneur Dexter Nicholls for Diego Martin West and extempo monarch and calypsonian Myron Bruce for Diego Martin East.