For­mer Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress dis­si­dents, who once op­posed Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, have ex­tend­ed con­grat­u­la­tions to the in­com­ing Prime Min­is­ter, even as they now turn their fo­cus to re­build­ing their ca­reers and lives out­side of pol­i­tics.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly said he had no in­ten­tion of re­join­ing the UNC from which he re­signed in March.

“I want to say con­grat­u­la­tions to the UNC, led by Mrs Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar. I have no is­sue in plac­ing that on the pub­lic record,” Ram­bal­ly said.

He said, though, he still does not see a fu­ture with the UNC.

“I could not align with the par­ty. That is why I re­signed. Hav­ing re­signed, I want­ed to sup­port the coun­try. But I have no in­ten­tion of re­join­ing the UNC,” he said.

Asked whether he would now join the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment, which he sup­port­ed dur­ing the cam­paign, Ram­bal­ly said, “I’m not a part of it yet. I on­ly sup­port­ed the PNM in the elec­tion. It is ear­ly days yet. I just sim­ply re­moved my­self from the UNC.”

He not­ed that his fo­cus now is on con­tin­u­ing his le­gal prac­tice and of­fer­ing ser­vice to the coun­try where pos­si­ble. 

“I just want to see that for the bet­ter­ment of the coun­try, we have democ­ra­cy and peo­ple work to­wards bet­ter­ing so­ci­ety—whether it’s the UNC or the PNM,” he said.

Mean­while, for­mer UNC MP for Tabaquite Ani­ta Haynes-Al­leyne, who al­so aligned with the PNM a day be­fore the elec­tion, said the coun­try had demon­strat­ed ma­tu­ri­ty in ex­e­cut­ing an­oth­er free and fair poll. She too ex­tend­ed con­grat­u­la­tions.

“Trinidad and To­ba­go has suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed an­oth­er free and fair elec­tion, and as a na­tion, we must be proud of that fact,” she said. “I con­grat­u­late Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar and her team on the vic­to­ry. The UNC has been giv­en a man­date to gov­ern and holds the great ex­pec­ta­tions of our peo­ple.”

She added, “To­day is a new day for Trinidad and To­ba­go. Let us con­tin­ue to work for a bet­ter coun­try.”

For­mer Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray, who had un­suc­cess­ful­ly con­test­ed the UNC’s in­ter­nal elec­tions, al­so ex­tend­ed con­grat­u­la­tions to Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Nicholas Mor­ris, who re­placed him as MP.

“Her re­turn to gov­ern­ment re­flects the will of the peo­ple and sig­nals a re­newed man­date for bet­ter gov­er­nance, na­tion­al sta­bil­i­ty, and a fo­cus on de­liv­er­ing re­sults,” Paray said.

He de­scribed Mor­ris’ new role as one with ma­jor re­spon­si­bil­i­ties.

“The con­stituen­cy faces se­ri­ous, long-stand­ing is­sues—from de­te­ri­o­rat­ing roads, coastal ero­sion, in­ad­e­quate wa­ter ser­vices, to lim­it­ed ac­cess to state agen­cies, job­less­ness, and ris­ing crime,” he said.

Paray said he re­mained com­mit­ted to na­tion­al ser­vice. “As I step away from ac­tive par­lia­men­tary rep­re­sen­ta­tion, I re­main com­mit­ted to na­tion­al ser­vice in what­ev­er ca­pac­i­ty I can con­tribute,” he said. —Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va