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AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

With Car­ni­val days away, the Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans’ Or­gan­i­sa­tion (TU­CO) has is­sued an un­usu­al pub­lic state­ment dis­tanc­ing it­self from pol­i­tics and re­ject­ing claims that Ca­lyp­so Fi­es­ta is be­ing used as a po­lit­i­cal plat­form.

Hours af­ter the draw for Ca­lyp­so Fi­es­ta at Radis­son Ho­tel in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day, TU­CO said it re­mains an apo­lit­i­cal body, es­tab­lished by an act of Par­lia­ment, and is not af­fil­i­at­ed with any po­lit­i­cal par­ty or group­ing. The or­gan­i­sa­tion stressed that it de­nounces any at­tempt to por­tray Ca­lyp­so Fi­es­ta as a po­lit­i­cal ral­ly, in­sist­ing the event must re­main a cul­tur­al and com­pet­i­tive show­case cen­tered on artis­tic ex­cel­lence and na­tion­al ex­pres­sion.