Jensen La Vende

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Elec­tion can­di­dates for the Port-of-Spain South con­stituen­cy all be­lieve they have what it takes to un­seat in­cum­bent Kei­th Scot­land.

His op­po­nents, Gail Cas­tana­da of the Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance, Dr Winzy Adams for the Pa­tri­ot­ic Front, Kirt Sin­nette for the Con­gress of the Peo­ple and Kezel Jack­son, leader of the All Peo­ple’s Par­ty, all agreed that the con­stituen­cy need­ed bet­ter rep­re­sen­ta­tion.

Scot­land, who along with the oth­ers filed their nom­i­na­tion at the Re­turn­ing Of­fi­cer’s of­fice, Bor­de Street of­fice, said he was un­both­ered by the chal­lenges.

“I am san­guine about my chance,” he said, adding that he will “mind his busi­ness” and can­vas the con­stituen­cy to fend off the four po­lit­i­cal pow­ers hop­ing to seize con­trol. 

For Jack­son, her hope is not to just un­seat Scot­land but to de­throne the rul­ing PNM.

“I am go­ing up against the prime min­is­ter be­cause I am run­ning a par­ty and op­pos­ing the prime min­is­ter. Run­ning ac­tu­al­ly to re­move him, to re­move Mr Stu­art Young. To re­move that po­lit­i­cal go­liath.”

Cas­tana­da said as a res­i­dent of the Port-of-Spain con­stituen­cy, liv­ing on Nel­son Street all her life, she was in­ti­mate­ly aware of its needs. The ma­son­ry teacher said while the con­stituen­cy was a PNM strong­hold, she was con­fi­dent of win­ning, as the na­tion was ready for change.

Like­wise, Adams, an ed­u­ca­tor for over two decades, al­so be­lieved that the area was in need of a change.

“The thing is, Port-of-Spain south, while orig­i­nal­ly and pre­dom­i­nant­ly PNM, I be­lieve that the en­tire coun­try is ready for change. I be­lieve that it is time for new eyes, new ears, new vi­sion, and a new heart and for many years I be­lieve that my con­stituen­cy has been ne­glect­ed.”

Sin­nette, who had to leave and re­turn to com­plete his nom­i­na­tion af­ter a mix-up with his forms, said the al­liance his par­ty formed with the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress was not afraid to ven­ture in­to PNM strong­holds.

He added that bet­ter­ment was need­ed in the con­stituen­cy and that was why he of­fered him­self. He wants to re­vamp the am­phithe­atre in St James as well as re­turn to the nightlife that once made it earn the name “the city that nev­er sleeps.”

Mean­while, his leader, Prakash Ra­mad­har, said he was not daunt­ed by the COP re­ceiv­ing two seats, both con­sid­ered PNM safe seats. 

“The COP had been in dor­man­cy for quite a while. I re­turned to bring it back to life, and the re­sponse has been re­al­ly great. But in the time frame and the re­sources avail­able to us, we have al­ways be­lieved that we can do hard work and do it,” he said.

“Be­cause it is not just about win­ning. It is in­deed about par­tic­i­pat­ing in a mean­ing­ful man­ner. And the chal­lenges that we face, of course, these are very pow­er­ful PNM seats, but the COP is un­daunt­ed by any chal­lenge. And we ex­pect ex­treme­ly good re­sults.”

The COP will be con­test­ing the St Ann’s East seat as well as Port-of-Spain South. St Ann’s East’s in­cum­bent is Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly, while the COP’s can­di­date is Ger­rard Small.