UNC Councillor Goes PNM in Tunapuna

TUNAPUNA – UNITED National Congress (UNC) Councillor for St Au­gus­tine South/Pi­ar­co/St He­le­na Khubal Pal­too has gone over to the People’s National Movement (PNM).

He made the announcement during a council meeting of the Tunapuna Piarco Regional Corporation in Tunapuna on Tuesday.

He said, “There is some­thing I want to touch on Mr Chair­man, the oath I took, is to serve the coun­try. That oath over­rides every­thing.

“I have been man­dat­ed by my burgess­es, of which a few came out to­day, to sup­port the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment can­di­date for St Au­gus­tine South /Pi­ar­co /St He­le­na.”

He said, “I have been man­dat­ed by my burgess­es to, with your per­mis­sion, come across on that side.”

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Paltoo picked up his name­plate and then took his seat on the oth­er side of the camber with the PNM councilors.

Pal­too even praised chair­man of the re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tion, Paul Lea­cock for his “coura­geous lead­er­ship” de­spite fi­nan­cial con­straints faced.

And in a release, the UNC said, Paltoo’s action comes days after another can­di­date was cho­sen by the par­ty to con­test the elec­tion for that dis­trict.

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The UNC stated, “Mr Pal­too was screened along with sev­er­al oth­er nom­i­nees for the elec­toral dis­trict, but the com­mit­tee se­lect­ed Mr Richard Ram­per­sad to con­test the seat.

“Mr Ram­per­sad brings en­er­gy, en­thu­si­asm and com­mit­ment and we ex­pect he will be sup­port­ed by many more than the 3351 peo­ple who sup­port­ed the UNC in the seat in the last lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tion.”