Your Vote, Your Future
Stephon Nicholas
IT was a party before the party at the UNC’s Toco/Sangre Grande head office on April 28 as Wayne Sturge, the candidate for the constituency, and exuberant supporters danced and celebrated the UNC’s resounding victory in the general election.
Almost 30 minutes later, data from outstanding polling stations ignited even more festivities.
“Declare it,” attorney Gerald Ramdeen, former UNC senator and friend of Sturge, shouted, as it became clearer that the party had snatched the constituency from the PNM’s Roger Monroe.
In an interview with Newsday, Sturge said he was humbled by the victory and had no intention of letting his new constituents down.
“I am humbled, honoured, privileged to serve,” he said. He said if he dies today his children will remember him as an accomplished lawyer.
“What I don’t want is if I close my eyes five years from now that my children would be saying my daddy was a failed politician. My reputation is at stake, so I intend to deliver.”
Sturge had previously described the task of overturning the 3,000-plus votes the PNM won by in 2020 as a “tall order.”
How did he do it?
“We had multiple strategies, but the target really was with the squatters, the disenfranchised, the young voters who were reduced to basically hustings because they didn’t have any jobs sustainable.”
He said crime in the constituency is because of unemployment and he intends to use local labour for the majority of construction work, instead of big contractors.
The celebrations continued into the morning as UNC supporters at the nearby Cumuto-Manzanilla office joined them.
A music truck was also present as Foster Road turned into a carnival-like street parade.
