The Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty (PEP) has writ­ten to Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Stu­art Young seek­ing an ex­emp­tion for one of its prospec­tive can­di­dates stuck in the Unit­ed States.

In a let­ter dat­ed Ju­ly 12, the PEP said that its D'abadie/Omeara can­di­date, Hadas­sah Charles Mc Leod had sent a re­quest to the Min­istry of Ju­ly 5 to re­turn from the US where she was stuck when bor­ders were closed in March.

The par­ty said that Mc Leod on­ly re­ceived a gener­ic re­sponse say­ing that her re­quest would be re­viewed, adding that she would have had to be in the coun­try in time to sub­mit nom­i­na­tion pa­pers to the Re­turn­ing Of­fi­cer on Fri­day.

"It is im­per­a­tive that she re­turns to Trinidad and To­ba­go as soon as pos­si­ble. We would al­so like to make men­tion of Ms Pene­lope Beck­les, can­di­date un­der the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) and Bar­ry Padarath, can­di­date un­der the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) were both able to en­ter the coun­try re­cent­ly, re­gard­less of our closed bor­ders, so that they may take part in the Gen­er­al Elec­tions 2020. There­fore we in­sist that our can­di­date be treat­ed in the same man­ner and be al­lowed to re­turn."

The par­ty said that up un­til Thurs­day it had not re­ceived a favourable re­sponse.

McLeod is still in the US.