United National Congress candidate for the Chaguanas West by-election, Khadijah Ameen, says she has been receiving reports of her supporters being threatened. Ameen made the announcement as she addressed the UNC’s Monday Night forum at the Warrenville Regional Complex in Cunupia. Ameen told supporters that people had been coming to her to report they were being threatened by people supporting other candidates in the race, but said she had been urging them not to respond to the threats. "I say to them stay strong, do not retaliate. Chaguanas West is made up of families. Do not fight, we must stay as one family,” she said. Ameen assured supporters that she would not “be attacking anyone” on her platform. “I will run a clean campaign,” she said.
Also addressing the gathering, Attorney General Anand Ramlogan declared that former Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner “is still our brother.” He said despite the fact that Warner had launched his own party to contest the election, Warner was still loved in the UNC. He said, “I did not come here tonight to bad talk my brother Jack. We love him, but the Prime Minister had no choice. Do you not think it hurt her too? Do you not think that we do not still love Mr Warner?” He urged Warner not to train his guns on his “brothers and sisters in the UNC”. Instead, he called on Warner, who resigned from the UNC on Friday mere hours before he formally launched the Independent Liberal Party (ILP) to remember that his fight was not with the UNC. “Your fight is with (Dr Keith) Rowley, who filed no confidence motion, your fight is with the FIFA Ethics committee, your fight is with the media,” Ramlogan said.
The AG took supporters on a historical journey through T&T politics, reminding them that the various parties opposed to the People’s National Movement have always split but that the PNM had remained strong and united. “Every time we are in power someone defects and fragments,” he lamented. “Does the PNM divide itself? The PNM has remained firm in its resolve. You lose power when you divide and fragment.”