{"id":6887,"date":"2013-01-13T21:57:42","date_gmt":"2013-01-14T01:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=6887"},"modified":"2013-01-13T22:02:08","modified_gmt":"2013-01-14T02:02:08","slug":"district-split-over-sandys-calcutta-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=6887","title":{"rendered":"District split over Sandy\u2019s Calcutta statement"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Andre Bagoo
\nJanuary 13, 2013 – newsday.co.tt<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Hilton Sandy<\/a>RESIDENTS of the polling district of Belle Garden East\/Roxborough\/ Delaford, which PNM candidate Hilton Sandy hopes to win in the Tobago House of Assembly elections come January 21, appear to be split right down the middle over the question of whether his chances in the election have been hurt because of his controversial \u201cCalcutta ship\u201d remarks.
\n
\nSandy is due to speak today at a PNM rally at Roxborough. On Friday, he was called into a meeting with PNM Tobago Council leader Orville London, as part of a PNM strategy exercise. Coming out of the meeting, Sandy was unusually tight-lipped. London, however, has defended Sandy and said the candidate will still speak today at the rally, in the face of calls for Sandy to be withdrawn as a candidate. London has said Sandy\u2019s chances remain good.<\/p>\n

Some of the Tobagonians living in the district \u2014 which includes Argyle, Roxborough, Louis D\u2019or and Delaford \u2013 are strongly of the view that Sandy\u2019s chances have been hurt and that he will not gain the support of the electorate because of his remarks.<\/p>\n

Equally, however, others seem to be of the view that Sandy\u2019s campaign will not be affected and will win victory over the Tobago Organisation of the People\u2019s Anslem Richards and the Platform for Truth\u2019s Senya Marin.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne person who is not supporting that kind of statement Sandy made is me,\u201d said Yvonne Orr, 72, of Delaford. \u201cIt has racial overtones and that is not right. It is not right to encourage things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, Johnson Gardner, 62, of Delaford is of the opposite view. \u201cI don\u2019t believe this will affect his chances,\u201d he said. \u201cWhenever you have an election people always say things and make all kinds of remarks.\u201d Another woman, who did not want to give her name fearing political victimisation, said, \u201cHe will win. He is a good man and this will have no impact on his campaign at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The remarks in question were these: \u201cThere is a ship at Calcutta waiting to sail to Tobago; they are waiting to get the results of this election. If you bring the wrong results, Calcutta ship is coming down for you. You must stop that ship. We must not allow that ship to sail and if you don\u2019t want that ship to sail, what you have to do? Is vote the PNM!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHis chances are slim,\u201d said mas-maker Nadine James of Mas Masters at her Roxborough home as she worked on the band\u2019s 2013 Carnival presentation Corals of the Caribbean. \u201cHe has really forgotten his place and it looks like his campaign has been hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey should have him out of the campaign,\u201d said Louise Melvile, 78, proprietor of the Barbados Shop at Argyle. \u201cI think after the election he should board a ship and go to Calcutta.\u201d<\/p>\n

But government worker Curtis Miller said, \u201cI don\u2019t think his campaign has been affected. Everybody makes all these comments. For example people called Jack Warner many things. That is how politics is.\u201d Miller said Sandy has been a good representative.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is doing his work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The polling district of Belle Garden East\/Roxborough\/Delaford, has an electorate of 3,611. It was previously known as the district of Roxborough\/Delaford. In 2009, Sandy narrowly won the district by 74 votes. He got 1,105 votes to the TOP\u2019s Lenin Toppin who got 1031.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.newsday.co.tt\/news\/0,171916.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Andre Bagoo January 13, 2013 – newsday.co.tt RESIDENTS of the polling district of Belle Garden East\/Roxborough\/ Delaford, which PNM candidate Hilton Sandy hopes to win in the Tobago House of Assembly elections come January 21, appear to be split right down the middle over the question of whether his chances in the election have … Continue reading District split over Sandy\u2019s Calcutta statement<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,566,396,30,7,154,632,55,334],"tags":[370,830,829,359],"class_list":["post-6887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-tt","category-opposition-party","category-peoples-partnership","category-pnm","category-politics","category-race-and-identity","category-racism-watch","category-tobago","category-top","tag-andre-bagoo","tag-election","tag-hilton-sandy","tag-newsday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6887"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6893,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6887\/revisions\/6893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}