In a sig­nif­i­cant po­lit­i­cal shift, Mara­bel­la Train­line—one of the most im­pov­er­ished re­gions of Mara­bel­la West—con­tin­ued to cel­e­brate yes­ter­day, af­ter the UNC’s John Michael Al­i­bo­cus emerged vic­to­ri­ous over his PNM coun­ter­part in the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tion.

Al­i­bo­cus broke a sev­en-year PNM hold on the seat.

Al­i­bo­cus, a so­ca artiste, fete pro­mot­er, busi­ness­man and record­ing artiste, won the seat by 29 votes.

The PNM’s tenure, first held by Michael John­son and lat­er by Jen­nifer Mar­ryshow, wit­nessed a sur­pris­ing turn of events when Mar­ryshow’s daugh­ter, Jameela, con­test­ed the seat and lost to Al­i­bo­cus on Mon­day.

When Guardian Me­dia ar­rived on the Mara­bel­la Train­line yes­ter­day, all of the res­i­dents in­ter­viewed voiced their ap­proval for this change.

Fly­ers fea­tur­ing Al­i­bo­cus’ smile adorned every pole, paint­ing a pic­ture of a loved rep­re­sen­ta­tive.

One res­i­dent, Ri­car­do Fras­er, re­flect­ed on what he called the his­tor­i­cal ne­glect by the PNM.

“I feel that all the time we were left out and now we have some­one who can help us along the way, es­pe­cial­ly the fish­er­men,” Fras­er said.

He ex­plained that fish­er­men were plagued by theft due to the lack of a se­cure fish­ing port.

He de­scribed Al­i­bo­cus as a peo­ple’s per­son, say­ing, “We ex­pect to see him reg­u­lar­ly. Have meet­ings with him and tell him how we feel.”

Sun­dar­lal Gan­ga, an­oth­er fish­er­man, un­der­scored the years of suf­fer­ing faced by Mara­bel­la West con­stituents.

“My house is re­al­ly bad­ly off. I vot­ed be­cause I want a change,” Gan­ga said.

An­oth­er res­i­dent, Don­ny Paul, ex­pressed op­ti­mism about Al­i­bo­cus’ vic­to­ry and how he felt it could im­prove the com­mu­ni­ty.

An­oth­er res­i­dent Satro­han Pul­chan crit­i­cised the PNM, say­ing: “The PNM promis­es but they don’t de­liv­er any­thing here.”

Amidst the crit­i­cisms, An­tho­ny Bel­lo shared a heart­felt mo­ment when Al­i­bo­cus reached out af­ter a re­cent flood. Bel­lo said, “Mr Al­i­bo­cus came here and tears came out of his eyes when he saw our loss­es. We know he cares.”

In an in­ter­view af­ter his vic­to­ry, Al­i­bo­cus em­pha­sised his com­mit­ment to up­lift­ing sin­gle moth­ers, not­ing, “I love Mara­bel­la West. They are my peo­ple and I will do my best to care for them.”

He de­scribed the sit­u­a­tion as dire, with moth­ers strug­gling to cope in a post-pan­dem­ic world with the ris­ing cost of liv­ing.

“I can tell you that right now peo­ple don’t have an in­cen­tive to live,” he said, re­count­ing sto­ries of moth­ers fac­ing un­bear­able hard­ships.

He drew par­al­lels be­tween Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and his moth­er, ex­plain­ing why he had so much em­pa­thy.

Al­i­bo­cus said when peo­ple start­ed com­ing to his busi­ness place ask­ing for a meal, he knew he had to do some­thing more.

His close mar­gin win has prompt­ed his op­po­nent, Mar­ryshow, to re­quest a re­count. But he is not wor­ried.

Al­i­bo­cus said even if he does not get the re­sources from Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment to help his burgess­es, he will use his skills as an en­tre­pre­neur and a pro­mot­er to raise funds to help the peo­ple of the Mara­bel­la Train­line.

“God is the boss and he is in charge. I come from a fam­i­ly of strong-willed peo­ple. We work from 9 am to 9 pm every day. Mara­bel­la West is my busi­ness and I will take care of my busi­ness,” Al­i­bo­cus said.

He added, “We will find a way to get the re­sources. I can do a show, and start a non-prof­it or­gan­i­sa­tion. Throw an event twice a year and make peo­ple bring in canned foods, rice, flour and I will give it to my peo­ple.”