Friday, April 23 2010

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ONE ACCORD: A close photo showing the People's Partnership Accord. ...

THE historic People’s Partnership, a unity accord signed by five political parties opposed to the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM), paves the way for these parties to fight under the umbrella of the United National Congress (UNC) against the PNM in the May 24 snap General Election.

The parties to the accord are the UNC, Congress of the People (COP), Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP), National Joint Action Committee (NJAC) and the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ), agreed that the “Leader of the Partnership” and Prime Ministerial candidate would be Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

An examination of the accord shows that the respective parties also agreed that only one candidate “from the partnership shall contest the General Election in each (of the 41) constituency” and that candidate would be the “standard bearer for the Partners in that constituency”.

“The partners have established a collaborative team, a common platform for sharing a common public policy programme and have agreed to establish mechanisms for the achievement of consensus.”

The People’s Partnership — a partnership for sustainable good governance in Trinidad and Tobago — was signed at a UNC public meeting at Charlie King Junction in Fyzabad on Wednesday evening by each of the respective parties’ political leaders.

“The partners commit to adopt principles and codes of conduct whereby the interest of our beloved country is and shall be put before party and individual self interest and as a government comprising the partners, will implement a public policy programme to improve the quality of life of the people of Trinidad and Tobago based on shared principles of national development and national unity,” the accord notes.

The accord was signed by the UNC’s Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the COP’s Winston Dookeran, the TOP’s Ashworth Jack, NJAC’s Makandal Daaga and the MSJ’s Errol Mcleod.