Caption: Ruston Paray
By Sue-Ann Wayow
THE United National Congress (UNC) internal election scheduled for June 15 will be one of the most crucial elections in the country.
It would be the deciding factor whether the People’s National Movement (PNM) would stay in office for a third five-year term allowing the PNM to recreate history or it would give the UNC another opportunity to get back into government.
This is according to leader of the UNC’s United Patriots Rushton Paray.
Speaking on Wednesday night at the Barrackpore Country Club, Paray said as long as situations and people remained the same in the UNC, the party will get the same results as it has been getting since 2015 – losing election after election.
“If we allow the PNM to win the elections next year, it will be the first time in 40 years that the PNM has won three consecutive elections. Dr (Keith) Rowley will wave that Balisier flag and say take that. I is man. And then you know what, he is going to finish mash up this country,” Paray said.
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He said, “We are 18 months away from a general election and up to today, the party has done nothing different that will prepare us to take government in 2025. If we did nothing for the last three years and a half, do we expect a different result next year. No.”
Paray said, “We will have nothing to govern in 2030 if we don’t make the change and win government in 2025. That is the reality of the matter.”
Paray also said to date, he has not put the party in any disrepute, ill mouthing or insulting any other member including political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
“I ain’t tell anybody to step down. I ain’t tell anybody to hand over nothing.”
However, members of the party suffered ridicule and fear if they openly supported the United Patriots as well as being threatened that they will lose their jobs he claimed.
One of the first tasks he has committed to should his slate be successful in the election is the healing of the party.
Paray said, “On the 16th of June, when we have won this election, the work begins right away. The first thing we have to commence, we have to heal this party. Nothing anybody has ever said on this side for the past two months has insulted or hurt anyone. But you see the method of which the other side operates. It was never my intention to bring the party into any problem, into any disrepute that is why we don’t respond to the foolishness.”
“It is not my intention to drag the party down!” he said.
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Paray added, “The persons who support the other slate, they are not our enemies. They are our opponents in an election and when the election is over we have a party to hold on to beat the PNM.”
“Why attack people in a democratic process?” he asked.
Paray pledged, “I will make every effort to reach out to every single person who feel or who would have felt that they would have been disconnected, disenchanted from the processes of the party and we need to get everybody back home under the umbrella of the rising sun.”
“We cannot win a general election, if we keep alienating people,” the MP for Mayaro said.
