Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

In­com­ing prime min­is­ter Stu­art Young has rub­bished UNC leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s ac­cu­sa­tions about him, say­ing he will not be dis­tract­ed.

He al­so says he looks for­ward to unit­ing all cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“The Leader of the Op­po­si­tion and the UNC’s con­tin­ued per­son­alised at­tacks on my fam­i­ly and oth­ers are com­plete­ly with­out mer­it,” Young said yes­ter­day in an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia.

His com­ments came af­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar, at UNC’s cot­tage meet­ing in Ch­agua­nas on Mon­day night, lashed out at Young af­ter Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley an­nounced that the PNM’s par­lia­men­tary cau­cus had vot­ed for Young to be prime min­is­ter af­ter Row­ley steps down from the post.

Speak­ing dur­ing the meet­ing, Per­sad-Bisses­sar ques­tioned Young’s suit­abil­i­ty to lead. She made al­le­ga­tions about Young’s step­daugh­ter and broth­er. She al­leged Young showed “bla­tant con­tempt for cit­i­zens” and this was un­der­scored when House Speak­er Bridgid An­nisette-George rep­ri­mand­ed Young “for his un­prece­dent­ed dis­re­spect and abu­sive be­hav­iour” in Par­lia­ment last year. Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­leged Young did so as he “hates” women.” She called on women not to sup­port him.

Ear­li­er on Mon­day in com­ment­ing on the de­ci­sion, the UNC leader had told Guardian Me­dia, “The PNM re­placed a lazy, greedy, self­ish old man with a lazy, greedy, self­ish young man as its leader. Kei­th Row­ley and Stu­art Young did their best to make Joe Biden and Ka­mala Har­ris’ im­pres­sion and un­de­mo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly anoint­ed Young leader of the PNM and suc­ces­sor to prime min­is­ter be­fore the next gen­er­al elec­tions.”

She al­so slammed Row­ley’s tenure as prime min­is­ter, as she said he and Young had many sim­i­lar­i­ties. Per­sad-Bisses­sar claimed Young had “achieved noth­ing in the three min­istries he served” and that the way Row­ley “foist­ed” Young on T&T “is an af­front and as­sault to T&T’s democ­ra­cy” and the elec­torate, em­u­lat­ing in­fa­mous dic­ta­tors. She said the prime min­is­ter must not be cho­sen dur­ing a pri­vate re­treat but by the peo­ple in elec­tions.

How­ev­er, Young yes­ter­day ac­cused the UNC leader of at­tack­ing peo­ple.

“The pop­u­la­tion is more sen­si­ble than to place any cre­dence on these fab­ri­ca­tions and their nasty at­tacks on peo­ple. I look for­ward to unit­ing all of our cit­i­zens who are com­mit­ted and will­ing to build our coun­try and to take it for­ward to re­alise its fullest po­ten­tial.

“I will not be dis­tract­ed by Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar and the UNC or any oth­er de­trac­tor. I am cer­tain that our cit­i­zens want de­liv­ery and re­sults and I look for­ward to work­ing with ALL to en­sure a bet­ter Trinidad and To­ba­go,” Young said.

Mean­while, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the UNC would be part­ner­ing with oth­er en­ti­ties for the elec­tions, not­ing Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty’s Phillip Alexan­der at­tend­ed the cot­tage meet­ing. She added the UNC would work with PEP as it re­sumes screen­ing to­day (Wednes­day).

UNC deputy po­lit­i­cal leader Jear­lean John mean­while said the PNM had “hand­ed UNC” the elec­tion on Mon­day.

“They change their theme song from ‘Let’s Do This’ to ‘Small Pin Does Chook Hard’,” she added slam­ming Row­ley.

“He’s afraid of the lick­ing com­ing. We’ve al­ready run him out of town. We’ll take on bul­ly num­ber two.”

To­co/San­gre Grande can­di­date Wayne Sturge said the “one per cent now had their man in OPM.”