KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

The Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty (PEP) seeks to cre­ate his­to­ry in lo­cal gov­ern­ment, of­fer­ing a deaf can­di­date for the Pe­nal elec­toral dis­trict in the Au­gust 14 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions (LGE).

Vice-Pres­i­dent of the As­so­ci­a­tion for the Hear­ing Im­paired Stephen Dookhran, 39, said if elect­ed to the Pe­nal-Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion (PDRC), he will not on­ly rep­re­sent those with hear­ing im­pair­ments but all dif­fer­ent­ly-abled peo­ple, along with his com­mu­ni­ty. Speak­ing with a sign lan­guage in­ter­preter as he filed his nom­i­na­tion with the Re­turn­ing Of­fi­cer at the Shoppes of Debe yes­ter­day, Dookhran ad­mit­ted that he did not have a for­mal ed­u­ca­tion but be­lieves he can rep­re­sent peo­ple.

He re­called that rel­a­tives were try­ing to com­mu­ni­cate with him around age nine when one sug­gest­ed he learn the al­pha­bet. His moth­er learned sign lan­guage and then taught it to him. From there, he met oth­er deaf peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ty and re­alised their sign lan­guage was dif­fer­ent. He ob­served them, picked up their meth­ods, and learned how to com­mu­ni­cate with oth­ers. The Tradewinds Ho­tel em­ploy­ee is now proud as a deaf per­son to join the LGE.

“I am in­volved with many NGOs and oth­er or­gan­i­sa­tions. I can rep­re­sent all peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties, but it is not just about dis­abil­i­ties. It is for both hear­ing (im­paired) and peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties. We are all equal. I want to roll up my sleeves and get the work done for the best of the com­mu­ni­ty of T&T,” Dookran said.

PEP Deputy Po­lit­i­cal Leader Maris­sa Per­sad-Par­boo, the can­di­date for Debe East, said that hav­ing Dookhran in the coun­cil was some­thing the par­ty would pro­mote so peo­ple can shed their fears and step up.

“We want to give the lay­man a chance to prove them­selves and know that any­body can stand and get things done in the com­mu­ni­ty. It is what we want to push. We want to push that whether or not, no mat­ter who you are, you can have an op­por­tu­ni­ty to serve your peo­ple cor­rect­ly and right­eous­ly,” Per­sad-Par­boo said.

UNC con­fi­dent, PNM

ready to up­set

The PEP will con­test nine of the ten dis­tricts in the PRDC as they are un­able to find a can­di­date for the Quinam/Morne Di­a­blo seat.

Mean­while, the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), who had no suc­cess in pre­vi­ous LGE in the re­gion, be­lieves they are ready to dis­turb the norm. Jef­frey Ranghill, the can­di­date for La For­tune/La Ro­maine, 31, an act­ing su­per­vi­sor at T&TEC, said the feel­ing was pos­i­tive in his camp, with his leader and cam­paign team be­hind him. His move­ment is to let the youth know that one vote for the PNM is a vote for Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Re­form.

“We have a lot of things we are try­ing to bring to the youths. We are try­ing to let them know about Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Re­form and to im­ple­ment cer­tain things like ac­tiv­i­ties and op­por­tu­ni­ties for the youths in La Ro­maine to come out and ex­press their feel­ings,” Ranghill said.

Shan­non Roop­nar­ine, the can­di­date for Pe­nal, said she was hop­ing to get young peo­ple out to the polls. 

“Let them come out and see how im­por­tant lo­cal (gov­ern­ment) elec­tions are be­cause it is im­por­tant to try to boost the com­mu­ni­ty,” Roop­nar­ine said.

Ac­knowl­edg­ing that LGE usu­al­ly has a low vot­er turnout, she said peo­ple should see it as a gauge for the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion. 

PDRC the UNC fortress–Mooni­lal

De­spite the op­ti­mism from the PEP and PNM, Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal de­scribed the PDRC as the UNC fortress.

“It has al­ways been a fortress of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress, and we ex­pect this time that we will not on­ly se­cure all ten elec­toral dis­tricts but all four al­der­men pur­suant to the law.” Mooni­lal said there was a his­tor­i­cal dis­trust of the PNM in these ar­eas, and noth­ing changed be­cause of the lev­el of crime and poor in­fra­struc­ture. He said vot­er com­pla­cen­cy was a peren­ni­al chal­lenge in UNC strong­holds where peo­ple take vic­to­ry for grant­ed. How­ev­er, he said this was where cam­paign­ing and lead­er­ship mo­ti­vat­ed peo­ple to vote. UNC can­di­date for Palmiste/Her­mitage Raven Ram­sawak is con­fi­dent of vic­to­ry, say­ing it was in a UNC strong­hold. Ram­sawak, 29, a re­al es­tate agent, said he was the chair­man of an NGO and al­ways vol­un­teers in com­mu­ni­ty ac­tiv­i­ties. It helped him to build knowl­edge of what a lo­cal gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tive can do for a com­mu­ni­ty.

“There is on­ly so much you can do as an NGO and a vol­un­teer. There is much more you can do when you tap in­to re­sources and stake­hold­ers and build com­mu­ni­ties and re­sources,” Ram­sawak said.

Siparia Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Chair­man Di­nesh Sankers­ingh said the nom­i­na­tion day process went smooth­ly for UNC can­di­dates in Siparia. He com­pli­ment­ed the Re­turn­ing Of­fice, say­ing there was no hic­cup and every process met its time­line. PNM elec­tions of­fi­cer In­dar Paras­ram al­so said the nom­i­na­tions went smooth­ly in Siparia. Paras­ram said all nine can­di­dates con­clud­ed ac­tiv­i­ties at 11 am.