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With the gen­er­al elec­tion cam­paign in full swing, the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) brought a fes­tive at­mos­phere to San Fer­nan­do West as po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar in­tro­duced four more can­di­dates for next month’s poll.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­vealed that Robert Mitchell of the Love Move­ment will con­test the Laven­tille West seat as part of the Coali­tion of In­ter­est. She al­so an­nounced that in­cum­bent MPs Michelle Ben­jamin, Khadi­jah Ameen, and Dr Roodal Mooni­lal will seek re-elec­tion in their re­spec­tive con­stituen­cies.

With elec­tions of­ten be­ing re­gard­ed as the “Car­ni­val of pol­i­tics,” hun­dreds flocked to Na­pari­ma Col­lege ear­ly, ea­ger to se­cure park­ing and seat­ing—es­pe­cial­ly as sev­er­al red-band maxi-taxis oc­cu­pied much of the avail­able space. Dressed in T-shirts sup­port­ing their re­spec­tive can­di­dates, UNC sup­port­ers gath­ered be­fore fill­ing the au­di­to­ri­um to ca­pac­i­ty, leav­ing many stand­ing. With every thun­der­ous pi­cong, pro­posed plan, and ral­ly­ing cry, horns blared in re­sponse, am­pli­fy­ing the charged at­mos­phere. It was an event teem­ing with young peo­ple, in­clud­ing fresh can­di­dates, while vet­er­an fig­ures such as for­mer UNC chair­man Jack Warn­er and his­to­ri­an Prof Sel­wyn Cud­joe looked on. Some can­di­dates made their en­trance wav­ing a flag across the stage, adding to the spec­ta­cle.