NATIONAL Transformation Alliance (NTA) political leader Gary Griffith says the party will wait to see what happens after the June 17 by-elections in Lengua/Indian Walk and Morne Diablo/Quinam with respect to a possible alliance between the NTA and the UNC for next year's general election.
He made these comments after preliminary results in the UNC's internal elections on June 15 saw the incumbent Star slate defeating the United Patriots 213,651 to 62,186 votes.
After she voted at Debe Secondary School on June 15, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said she would deal with "external people" after the UNC's internal elections are over.
The comment referred to a letter sent to her on June 12 by Griffith.
In his letter, Griffith asked her to clarify whether or not the NTA and UNC will form an alliance to challenge the PNM in next year's general election.
Griffith also asked Persad-Bissessar to respond to comments reportedly made by UNC deputy leader Jearlean John against him.
In the Star slate's clean sweep in the UNC elections, John successfully retained her deputy political leader post.
At a news conference at McBean, Couva on June 16, Mayaro MP Rushton Paray called upon the incoming Star UNC national executive (natex) to "present a viable programme to harness all available talent to compete effectively against the inept PNM administration."
Paray was the leader of the United Patriots slate and unsuccessfully contested a deputy political leader post in the elections.
Asked whether this call to the natex was also one to Persad-Bissessar to meet immediately with Griffith to establish a proper UNC-NTA alliance for the general election, Paray said, "I can't speak on behalf of what's in the minds of Mrs Persad-Bissessar or even the incoming natex."
From day one, he continued, the Patriots advanced the position that they would be "open to every discussion with any group, any person, who would have had an interest in national development."
While the elections are over, Paray said he will continue to champion a space within the UNC to hold this discussion.
"Whether they (natex) go for it or not, that will be a decision for that leadership team to make. It remains in my view that it is an important issue."
In a Whatsapp response sent to Newsday, Griffith congratulated the members of the newly-elected UNC natex.
"I do know the difficulty in trying to bring everyone back together after a UNC internal election. It can be very, very lethal at times.
"I remember I was in the last time that the UNC had such an intense election was in 2006, where it was the (Basdeo) Panday slate versus the (Winston) Dookeran slate. The Panday slate was, in fact, known as the Patriots. The Dookeran slate was the Progressives and only three of us were actually able to win out seats (for the Progressives). That would have been Sadiq Baksh, Manohar Ramsaran and myself, and it was 12 to three going into that executive."
While the preliminary results of the June 15 elections show a clean sweep for the Star slate, Gr
