Shamfa tells supporters focus on undecided voters

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People’s National Movement (PNM) candidate for Tobago West Shamfa Cudjoe is calling on the party’s supporters to pay attention to people who have not made up their minds on which party to vote for come August 10.

Speaking at the party’s campaign meeting at Mason Hall on Wednesday night, Cudjoe said the party’s supporters should stop “preaching to the choir”.

“We move from village to village every day, sometimes we’re preaching to the choir but I am saying there is a group of people…that need some more massaging, so we do have some work to do,” she said to loud applause from the crowd.

She said one view of undecided voters is that all political parties are the same.

“Kamla (Persad-Bissessar) in power is certainly different from Dr Keith Christopher Rowley in power,” she said.

She drew reference to a statement by deceased Tobago statesman Arthur NR Robinson when as President of the country he was faced with the decision about who should govern the country following an 18-18 tie at the general elections.

She quoted the PNM’s Tobago East campaign manager Wendell Berkely on the issue. Berkely said Robinson indicated the reason he allowed the PNM to govern the country then had to do with the PNM’s moral authority over the United National Congress.

She also rubbished the view held by undecided voters that any Government in power is “obligated” to do specific tasks, so they need not vote to decide the next government.

The Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs said she reminded an undecided voter that the governments of Jamaica and Barbados are not paying for their citizens’ education.

PNM Tobago West candidate Ayanna Webster-Roy also touched on the undecided voter issue.

She appeared to suggest that the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP), whose party’s symbol is mostly black, was misleading the electorate.

“If we allow the men in black (PDP) to continue to peddle lies, innuendoes, and misinformation, we’re going to lose out on a lot in Tobago. We have to make a conscious decision to educate those around us,” Webster-Roy said. (CM)