Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) can­di­date for Cou­va South, Bar­ry Padarath, was warm­ly re­ceived dur­ing his first of­fi­cial walk­a­bout in the con­stituen­cy on Mon­day, fol­low­ing his se­lec­tion as the par­ty’s can­di­date for the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion.

Padarath re­places out­go­ing Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment Rudranath In­dars­ingh, whose name was not in­clud­ed on the UNC’s fi­nal slate of can­di­dates an­nounced last Thurs­day. Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia in the Cal­i­for­nia dis­trict, Padarath said he was en­cour­aged by the warm re­cep­tion from res­i­dents and con­firmed he had the full back­ing of the UNC’s Cou­va South ex­ec­u­tive.

“The peo­ple em­braced me whole­heart­ed­ly,” Padarath said. “They un­der­stand the chal­lenges they’ve faced over the past decade and they are ready for change.”