By Prior Beharry
POLITICAL Leader of the Progressive Empowerment Party (PEP) Phillip Edward Alexander is willing to enter into talks with either the People’s National Movement (PNM) or the United National Congress (UNC) for the upcoming general elections.
In a statement on Friday, he said the PEP held the deciding vote in Lengua/Indian Walk and Arima Northeast in the recent Local Government Elections.
Alexander said, “I say this to both the PNM and UNC that if we believe after all the work we are about to do that we may not prosper on our own, we may consider negotiating with others for a better country.”
In the Lengua/Indian Walk seat, PEP’s candidate Bronson Douglas attained 87 votes with the UNC and PNM candidates tying with equal number of votes. The EBC has since signalled fresh election in this district with the UNC taking legal action after a ballot with a UNC vote did not have the initial of an EBC official.
In Arima Northeast, the PNM was declared the winner with an initial tie and the UNC was stated as the winner after a recount. The PEP candidate received 81 votes in this district.
Alexander said that unlike the political leader of the National Transformation Alliance (NTA) Gary Griffith and his party, the PEP brought out people who were not voting.
He said, “But as said above, if the numbers suggest that there might be another route to accomplish the changes we want, if we can enter into protected, transparent and guaranteed negotiations for a better country we will let our members decide what happens next.”
Some of the issues, Alexander said the party would negotiate were strong anti-corruption laws, financial service regulations that end bank fees and share foreign exchange equally, opening the market to international competition and the decentralisation of WASA.
