By Prior Beharry
POLITICAL Leader of the Progressive Empowerment Party (PEP) Phillip Edward Alexander is willing to talk to the United National Congress (UNC) to form a united front for the August 14 Local Government Elections but “only on serious conditions.”
He said that UNC Political Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar must be willing to talk to him to have meaningful discussions “only on serious conditions on the way the country is run.”
The alliance must not just be for PEP to be a distraction, he said.
Alexander said, “We are not here to make-up votes or be a distraction. The only way forward must include serious issues.”
In an interview with AZP News on Friday, he said, “I stand by what I have repeated in the past, I have always been willing to talk to the UNC, but Kamla Persad-Bissessar must be willing to want to talk on serious issues.”
Alexander said, “Our negotiations must focus on people and no longer the friends and financiers of political parties.”
He added, “Thirty thousand farmers must no longer watch 90,000 acres of fertile farmland standing idle being shared out to mall builders while the price of food goes through the roof because food importers importing food that we could be growing here.”
Alexander said, “The PEP has plans and policies that will solve flooding and put water in people’s taps 24/7. It is time to stop this nonsense of desalinating sea water and throwing rainwater into the sea.
“The country is badly run and it’s not just about politics, it’s not just about winning, it is about fixing the country so that all of the people in Trinidad and Tobago could have the same benefits as everybody else, that the education system should not be prestige and fail – all children should have the same benefits of a proper education system, one to give them hope and opportunity.”
Nomination day is on Monday. And both the PNM and UNC have planned massive meetings to announce their candidates on Sunday.
On Wednesday, Alexander said the PEP was contesting seats in ten of the 14 corporations up for grabs. He said PEP’s partners, the Re-United Farmers Alliance will fight the other four corporations.
At a Monday Night Forum meeting on June 12, Persad-Bissessar said the UNC was opening its arms to the smaller parties to join her party to fight the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM).
She said, “The UNC is the only national party who would welcome them and say let us work together. We have done it before, we have brought disparate groups to come together to form a mighty force to unseat and remove this wicked PNM Government and tonight I make an appeal, let us all unite and come together to remove the wicked Rowley Government.”
At the press conference on June 14, PEP and Re-United Farmers Alliance said they were joining forces to contest all 141 seats in the 14 regional corporations in Trinidad.
Alexander said PEP had 35,000 members and Political Leader of the Re-United Farmers Davica Thomas said they had 72,000 members.
After the last LGE, both PNM and UNC each held control of seven corporations.
Efforts to contact Persad-Bissessar on Friday morning for a comment proved futile.
