SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

Shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

A heat­ed bat­tle is brew­ing be­tween the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) and the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) can­di­dates for con­trol of the close­ly con­test­ed mar­gin­al To­co/San­gre Grande seat in the up­com­ing Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

To­co/San­gre Grande is one of the con­stituen­cies ex­pect­ed to grab at­ten­tion on April 28, as it can swing ei­ther in favour of PNM can­di­date Roger Mon­roe or UNC’s Wayne Sturge, giv­en the in­tense cam­paign­ing in the north­east­ern re­gion.

Al­though the seat is be­ing con­test­ed by can­di­dates of the Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance (NTA)–Chris­tine Newal­lo-Ho­sein and the Pa­tri­ot­ic Front’s Eliz­a­beth Whar­ton, con­stituents feel the fight is re­al­ly be­tween Mon­roe and first-time con­tender Sturge, an at­tor­ney.

Mon­roe is no new­com­er to the po­lit­i­cal land­scape. He won the seat in 2020 with 10,694 votes, edg­ing out the UNC’s can­di­date Nabi­la Green, who cap­tured 7,303 votes. In the 2020 gen­er­al elec­tion, To­co/San­gre Grande had the high­est vot­ing pop­u­la­tion of all 41 con­stituen­cies, with 32,498 elec­tors.

Last year, the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion changed the elec­toral bound­aries in the con­stituen­cy, re­duc­ing the elec­torate to 30,498 and the num­ber of polling di­vi­sions to 48 in this year’s polls.

The mar­gin of the PNM over the UNC was 3,391. With this change, the sta­tis­ti­cal gap be­tween the PNM and the UNC will be 2,976.

The ad­just­ment re­duces the mar­gin of vic­to­ry for the PNM in To­co/San­gre Grande by 415 votes, as these votes are now be­ing count­ed in the Ari­ma con­stituen­cy.

For years, the con­stituen­cy was con­sid­ered a PNM strong­hold. How­ev­er, in 1986, Joseph Toney, a mem­ber of the Na­tion­al Al­liance for Re­con­struc­tion (NAR), broke the PNM’s hold on the seat, which was then called To­co/Man­zanil­la. In 2010, Dr Ru­pert Grif­fith, a can­di­date from the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship, won the seat—by then re­named To­co/San­gre Grande—from the PNM.

In the 2015 Gen­er­al Elec­tion, the PNM’s Glen­da Jen­nings-Smith re­claimed con­trol of the con­stituen­cy, which the PNM won again in 2020 with Mon­roe.

To­co/San­gre Grande is con­sid­ered the coun­try’s poor­est con­stituen­cy, ac­cord­ing to Cen­tral Sta­tis­ti­cal Of­fice 2011 da­ta. It al­so has high un­em­ploy­ment, ram­pant pover­ty, and a bal­loon­ing squat­ting pop­u­la­tion.

From Va­len­cia to far-flung Matelot, many con­stituents re­ceive a poor wa­ter sup­ply, bat­tle with de­plorable roads, and yearn for an HDC house to call their own.

Crime and mur­ders al­so have them liv­ing on edge.

What the can­di­dates promis­ing

Speak­ing at a UNC meet­ing in San­gre Grande last week, Sturge shared that he has a man­i­festo tai­lored for the con­stituen­cy, which he in­tends to un­veil soon. Among his key pro­pos­als is the cre­ation of sus­tain­able em­ploy­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties for young peo­ple. He de­scribed the chal­lenges in the area as solv­able but em­pha­sised the need for “a ded­i­cat­ed, full-time MP.”

Mon­roe, on the oth­er hand, out­lined his pro­posed 2025–2030 de­vel­op­ment plan for the con­stituen­cy. Com­mit­ted to im­prov­ing both lives and liveli­hoods, Mon­roe said his vi­sion is to chal­lenge the no­tion that res­i­dents are dis­ad­van­taged be­cause of where they live.

“It is my dream to bring this con­stituen­cy to the lev­el of all ur­ban com­mu­ni­ties,” he said.

Solozano: Peo­ple fed up with the PNM Gov­ern­ment

Robert Solozano, a Va­len­cia res­i­dent, said Mon­roe nev­er served their KP Lands com­mu­ni­ty.

“I can’t tell yuh I see Roger Mon­roe in the past five years in here no time,” a vis­i­bly up­set Solozano said, vent­ing his feel­ings.

He said Mon­roe’s lack of rep­re­sen­ta­tion was a “turn-off” and “a dis­ap­point­ment” be­cause the vil­lagers ex­pect­ed more from him—and of him.

Solozano said crime had topped their list of con­cerns.

There were sev­er­al mur­ders, kid­nap­pings, home in­va­sions, house break-ins, and rob­beries in the squat­ting set­tle­ment over the years.

An­oth­er fac­tor Solozano cit­ed was grow­ing un­em­ploy­ment.

“It have a lot of youth just up and down and sit­ting down by the road do­ing noth­ing. They sleep­ing in the day and com­ing out in the night to do what they have to do,” said Solozano.

Asked if Mon­roe could win the seat again, Solozano shook his head from side to side.

“I telling you the truth, peo­ple are fed up with this PNM gov­ern­ment be­cause, at the end of the day, their lives are not chang­ing. It just get­ting worse.”

This, he said, could cost the PNM dear­ly at the polls.

Alexan­der: I will nev­er vote for Kam­la

How­ev­er, near­by res­i­dent Ash­ley Patrick Alexan­der shared a dif­fer­ent view, stat­ing the PNM would get his sup­port if he vot­ed in this elec­tion.

“I have had enough of vot­ing. But you see Kam­la, I will nev­er, nev­er vote for she.”

Brath­waite: Mon­roe did noth­ing for us

At near­by La Plat­ta Cir­cu­lar, Samuel Brath­waite’s blood boiled with anger on hear­ing Mon­roe’s name.

“He’s a fail­ure. A waste of time. He did noth­ing for we,” Brath­waite com­plained, frown­ing his fore­head.

Brath­waite said jobs were not fair­ly dis­trib­uted to those most in need.

For him, there was no eq­ui­ty, lead­ing teenagers to join gangs as a means of sur­vival.

“Mon­roe not get­ting my vote. That is a no-no,” Brath­waite in­sist­ed.

Ma­haraj: I’m sur­viv­ing on a $510 month­ly food card

Un­em­ployed Ram­panal­gas res­i­dent Bon­naver­ra Ma­haraj, 34, said Mon­roe nev­er came to her res­cue af­ter plead­ing with him for a per­ma­nent job.

“Oth­er peo­ple ap­ply­ing now-for-now, and they get­ting through with work. They have their friends and fam­i­ly and favouritism in the coun­try,” Ma­haraj said. “But God is good.”

Liv­ing near the beach­front, Ma­haraj sur­vives on a month­ly $510 food card.

“I have to stretch this grant like elas­tic every month. A big 43-year-old woman like me–that is what I sur­vive on.”

Ma­haraj al­so ap­plied for an HDC house but knew her chances of own­ing a home were slim, giv­en her fi­nan­cial con­straints.

This time around, Ma­haraj said, Mon­roe would not get her vote.

“I like my UNC,” she con­fessed.

Ma­hadeo: It’s a neck-and-neck race

Proud­ly wear­ing an NTA jer­sey, Ed­ward Ma­hadeo said the race be­tween Mon­roe and Sturge was “neck and neck” as cam­paign­ing was re­lent­less in Ram­panal­gas to gar­ner votes.

Dozens of PNM and UNC ban­ners, fly­ers and posters have been erect­ed on co­conut tree trunks, walls, elec­tric­i­ty poles and in­side porch­es.

The slo­gan on the UNC ban­ner read “Win­ning with Wayne.”

Mon­roe’s catch­phrase is “All in for T&T.”

Al­though Ma­hadeo favoured the NTA’s prin­ci­ples, he would not give this third par­ty his vote.

“I will be vot­ing UNC, but I am sup­port­ing NTA.”

Ma­hadeo said the north­east­ern re­gion was ne­glect­ed and need­ed some­one new to take the con­stituen­cy for­ward.

Bobb: Dis­trib­ute jobs eq­ui­tably

Trevor Stephen Bobb, who sells pineap­ple chow in Matu­ra, de­scribed the rur­al vil­lage as stag­nant due to the MP’s lack of pres­ence and ac­tion.

“Well, boy, me ain’t see he (Mon­roe) do noth­ing, noth­ing, noth­ing new for the com­mu­ni­ty. Me ain’t see no changes. It’s the same ...”

The most Mon­roe did, he said, was to do­nate prizes for their sport­ing events.

The biggest prob­lem fac­ing the com­mu­ni­ty, Bobb said, was jobs be­ing hand­ed to PNM peo­ple.

“When they hear you is a UNC, you not get­ting no work. You ap­ply­ing for jobs, and you not get­ting it. Ah talk­ing plain.”

Some­times, he said, one per­son would get “three ten days” in URP, and when they col­lect their salary, it is blown on rum.

Bobb said jobs should be of­fered to peo­ple on both sides of the po­lit­i­cal di­vide, but this was not the case.

He said if Sturge wins the seat, “it might be a good, it might be a bad.” How­ev­er, he is con­cerned about an­oth­er term un­der “miss­ing Mon­roe.”

“Hon­est­ly, I don’t know who I’m vot­ing for. When I go to the polling sta­tion, I will de­cide.”

Chase: Poor roads and wa­ter sup­ply in To­co

One To­co res­i­dent, who gave his name as Chase, vent­ed his frus­tra­tion about the poor qual­i­ty of the To­co Main Road.

“Our com­mu­ni­ty needs the ba­sic ne­ces­si­ty of a good road to get in and out. So many things are lack­ing up here. This is prob­a­bly the poor­est place in the en­tire coun­try,” he said.

Chase feels the com­mu­ni­ty de­serves far bet­ter and much more.

Not far away at Up­per Beg­gs Trace, the res­i­dents begged for a prop­er pipe-borne wa­ter sup­ply.

They said the wa­ter pres­sure was al­ways low and nev­er re­li­able.

“Some­times it takes hours for a 500-gal­lon tank to fill,” said one res­i­dent who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty.

By­ron: The con­stituen­cy re­gress­ing

Ped­dling pre­serves and cold drinks in To­co, 91-year-old Elsie By­ron said it pained her heart to see young peo­ple aim­less.

“When these youths leave school, they will ei­ther plant, fish, be­come teenage par­ents or go astray. To work with the gov­ern­ment, you have to put down your name 100 times be­fore you get a day’s work. Them is the man and woman of to­mor­row. But they have no fu­ture, no di­rec­tion. That does both­er me.”

The fish­ing and farm­ing com­mu­ni­ty, she said, was not pro­gress­ing but re­gress­ing.

“I’m dis­ap­point­ed in plen­ty of things. It has not been nice in To­co from be­gin­ning to end. I know be­cause I still liv­ing through it.”

By­ron said the PNM could have done a lot more in the con­stituen­cy in its ten years.

“You know the two lit­tle days this la­dy … Kam­la was in gov­ern­ment; she did so much. She did well. She built this and that.”

The pen­sion­er said last month she felt re­lieved when Dr Kei­th Row­ley stepped down as the coun­try’s prime min­is­ter.

Rais­ing her hands and do­ing a jig on her chair, she sang, “I glad Row­ley gone. I glad Row­ley gone.”

An­a­lyst: Lack of rep­re­sen­ta­tion, re­sources

Po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Dr Shane Mo­hammed says To­co/San­gre Grande is a seat to watch this elec­tion.

Mo­hammed said the con­stituen­cy was con­sid­ered “mar­gin­al” and “can swing” be­cause of a lack of rep­re­sen­ta­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion of re­sources.

An­oth­er fac­tor is where the seat is lo­cat­ed ge­o­graph­i­cal­ly, stat­ing that much of the rur­al area along the north­east­ern coast has been un­der­de­vel­oped.

“It is al­so one of the rea­sons why in the 2023 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tions it swung dra­mat­i­cal­ly to the UNC in a very his­toric win.”

The con­stituen­cy is rich in eco­tourism and a space for gov­ern­ment in­vest­ment in the thrust to­wards di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion.

“It should be a hub for en­tre­pre­neur­ship, sport de­vel­op­ment, in­no­va­tion and train­ing.”

He said Munroe, as a full-time MP, did not do enough for the con­stituen­cy.

While the Gov­ern­ment has fo­cused on mega projects for the con­stituen­cy and gave a boost with a tour of the new San­gre Grande Hos­pi­tal, Mo­hammed was not con­vinced that Munroe served his con­stituents in a man­ner where he could sit com­fort­ably.

“The is­sues which have plagued the con­stituen­cy should have re­ceived greater re­sources, es­pe­cial­ly the bad roads and un­em­ploy­ment, at the very least. Un­em­ploy­ment leads to crime and idle­ness. There­fore, giv­en the rur­al na­ture of the con­stituen­cy, greater in­vest­ment in the peo­ple of To­co/San­gre Grande should have been done.”

Mo­hammed added, “The con­stituen­cy has suf­fered in terms of a lack of mi­cro-gov­er­nance, where peo­ple-cen­tred is­sues have been over­looked for macro-gov­er­nance. A full-time MP should have been the strongest ad­vo­cate for peo­ple-cen­tred re­sources, which Mr Munroe did not do.”