Sascha Wil­son

As cam­paign­ing heats up with just two weeks to go be­fore the April 28 gen­er­al elec­tion, sev­er­al posters and ban­ners be­long­ing to PNM and UNC can­di­dates in the Moru­ga/Table­land con­stituen­cy have been van­dalised.

UNC can­di­date Michelle Ben­jamin, who is seek­ing to re­tain the seat, and PNM can­di­date Lisa At­wa­ter have both de­scribed the acts of van­dal­ism as de­lib­er­ate.

In a Face­book post, Ben­jamin ex­pressed deep dis­ap­point­ment, stat­ing: “This is not the kind of pol­i­tics our coun­try needs. This is not the kind of cam­paign our peo­ple de­serve. The res­i­dents of Moru­ga/Table­land are not in­ter­est­ed in pet­ty sab­o­tage or child­ish an­tics — they want to hear re­al so­lu­tions. They want to know how those seek­ing of­fice plan to im­prove their lives, liveli­hoods, and fu­tures. Acts of van­dal­ism do noth­ing but in­sult the in­tel­li­gence of the elec­torate. They are a dis­ser­vice to the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic process and to the thou­sands of cit­i­zens who de­serve re­spect­ful, rep­re­sen­ta­tive lead­er­ship. I call on all can­di­dates and cam­paign teams to con­duct them­selves with dig­ni­ty and to fo­cus on what tru­ly mat­ters: ser­vice to the peo­ple.

Let us rise above the noise, and cam­paign with hon­esty, re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, and re­spect.”

Mean­while, in a post on the Face­book page of PNM can­di­date Lisa At­wa­ter, the cam­paign stat­ed they will not be dis­tract­ed or fazed.

The post read:

“This cam­paign is des­tined to PRE­VAIL. How­ev­er, it is quite un­for­tu­nate that oth­er par­ties, in their des­per­a­tion, have re­sort­ed to van­dal­iz­ing our ban­ners and posters. The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s can­di­date for Moru­ga/Table­land, LISA AT­WA­TER, will con­tin­ue to be a pil­lar of re­spect and in­tegri­ty, and ab­solute­ly will not con­done this type of de­spi­ca­ble be­hav­iour. We are red, ready, and RE­SPON­SI­BLE!”