Sev­er­al res­i­dents in the Princes Town con­stituen­cy yes­ter­day wel­comed the re­moval of Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress in­cum­bent MP Bar­ry Padarath who had been their rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the last ten years.

While none of the con­stituents who spoke with Guardian Me­dia were fa­mil­iar with the UNC’s prospec­tive can­di­date, Dr Aiy­na Ali, a den­tist, they were will­ing to “give her a chance.”

Res­i­dents in New Grant, St Julien and Per­ry Young claimed they had not seen Padarath in their com­mu­ni­ties for a long time. 

How­ev­er, they were con­fi­dent that UNC would re­tain the seat.

Boast­ing that St Julien Road was the child­hood neigh­bour­hood of the late UNC founder Bas­deo Pan­day, res­i­dent Dharam­raj Nor­man said they need­ed a change in Princes Town.

“The road bad, then for the last nine years noth­ing done. So, if we get a change, we will be glad and we need plen­ty thing done in the vil­lage, St Ju­lian, Princes Town area.”

An­oth­er res­i­dent from St Julien, 62-year-old Sheila Chan­doo, said she was sur­prised that Padarath would not be con­test­ing his seat. “Let’s see if it will make a change in the area to see if we would get the road fix, the cave land be­cause it is a re­al bad sit­u­a­tion in the road. Let’s see what changes she will come (with) and how she go­ing to be. We will wel­come her.”

Mean­while, New Grant res­i­dent Roshan Ram­cha­ran said he was not both­ered that Padarath would no longer be the par­lia­men­tary rep­re­sen­ta­tive.  “I glad they put some­body new in the po­si­tion so we could see some changes right through on this side.”  Ram­cha­ran was not pleased with Padarath as Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment.

“We nev­er see no big per­for­mance in this area, noth­ing. The (recre­ation) ground in the bad state in the back there. We nev­er see noth­ing new change on this side.”

New Grant farmer Nigel Dy­er did not be­lieve that re­plac­ing Padarath would bring much-need­ed im­prove­ments in his com­mu­ni­ty.  “At the end of the day we in New Grant here does not get good rep­re­sen­ta­tion be­cause they does con­sid­er this zone to be a PNM area be­cause for in­stance, we have a (recre­ation) ground right in the back here and ba­si­cal­ly it close down. So, who­ev­er they put doesn’t re­al­ly make a dif­fer­ence to us, to me.” 

He said he was not fa­mil­iar with the new prospec­tive can­di­date.

“If I don’t see her, I can’t feel com­fort­able.” 

Per­ry Young Road res­i­dent Yusuf Ali, 63, who has been vot­ing for as long as he could re­mem­ber, had no prob­lem with Padarath be­ing re­placed.

“Very good be­cause as a younger per­son and thing we might get more progress.”  While he did not know the new can­di­date or what she looked like, he was will­ing to give her his sup­port.

“I don’t know her, take care is you. I feel is you,” he laughed.   

Speak­ing at Eid cel­e­bra­tions at the Per­ry Young Mosque recre­ation ground in Fair­field, Princes Town on Mon­day morn­ing, UNC leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar an­nounced that in­cum­bent Cou­va South MP Rudranath In­dars­ingh was re­placed by Padarath as the prospec­tive can­di­date, and Ali would re­place Padarath in the Princes Town con­stituen­cy.

As of yes­ter­day af­ter­noon, with just three days to go be­fore Nom­i­na­tion Day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar had an­nounced 24 of her 39 can­di­dates while the PNM has al­ready an­nounced its full slate of 41 can­di­dates.