As prime min­is­ter-des­ig­nate Stu­art Young pre­pares to take of­fice next week, for­mer Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) gen­er­al sec­re­tary Ash­ton Ford be­lieves Young will first have to counter Op­po­si­tion mis­in­for­ma­tion while nav­i­gat­ing race re­la­tions be­fore ad­dress­ing the oth­er is­sues he will have on his plate.

“The first thing he has en­coun­tered is to deal with the mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion, mis­in­for­ma­tion com­ing from the op­po­si­tion. The oth­er thing about a black par­ty, I thought we had got rid of that long time. Be­cause while the base is from among the Afro-Trinida­di­ans, it is not a black par­ty. Be­cause Stu­art would have nev­er been chair­man of the par­ty and prime min­is­ter in wait­ing,” Ford told Guardian Me­dia.

“We had George Cham­bers, he’s not a black man, (Patrick) Man­ning and Er­ic Williams. And even when Row­ley be­came po­lit­i­cal leader, there were peo­ple say­ing he’s too black to be prime min­is­ter. So, I can’t take this kind of non­sense from peo­ple about black peo­ple.”