PDP files police report as…Kamla’s photo appears on posters

2784949

The Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) party has filed a report with Scarborough police and the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) regarding the spread of alleged fraudulent and false posters bearing UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s image, purporting to lobby support for leader of the PDP Watson Duke.

The black, white and yellow posters were seen in a video plastered in places near James Park, after PDP held a meeting last Saturday .

The posters state, “Support Duke for a Better Tobago. People Before Politics. Kamla Persad- Bissesssar . Vote Unity. August 10 2020.”

PNM Leader Keith Rowley has repeatedly accused the UNC of being linked with Duke.

He said former PP minister Vernella Alleyne -Topping and colleagues Delmon Baker were at a recent PDP Roxborough meeting.

Baker subsequently said he hadn’t attended but was hoping for change in Tobago as PNM hadn’t performed well.

Alleyne-Toppin, however, said she’d joined PDP and supports Duke. She’s campaigning with PDP.

In an interview with Guardian Media a day after the election date was announced, PDP’s Farley Augustine said if PDP held the balance of power in results PDP would speak to PNM and UNC, but he’d cited issues with PNM governance.

After Persad-Bissessar recently issued a call for unity among parties for elections, Rowley said she was opening the door specifically to PDP .

PNM officials yesterday claimed the posters showed the link between the UNC and PDP.

But PDP’s Augustine said, “These posters are absolutely false — completely fictional. We believe they’re made up by our political enemies to change the Tobago narrative for people to believe PDP and UNC are working together. But we use only billboards and don’t use paper posters. We use some posters in the office only.”

“We reported it to EBC as it violates the law in terms of spreading false information. We reported it also to police as fraud . We’ll send a team to pull down the posters .It’s PNM’s attempt to re-engineer the ‘Calcutta Ship’ thinking of 2013,’’

UNC PRO Anita Haynes added, “ We’ve noted the desperate way PNM’s been acting. Posters like this can be manufactured by anyone. We’ve said we’re not seeking a coalition but the leader has said if you’re interested in national development, let’s work together in unity for T&T.”