PM defends separate Republic Day message to UNC supporters

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says she will not apol­o­gise for send­ing Re­pub­lic Day greet­ings to Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) sup­port­ers, de­fend­ing the move amid crit­i­cism that she had is­sued a sep­a­rate mes­sage to par­ty mem­bers on yet an­oth­er na­tion­al hol­i­day.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day re­ject­ed claims that she had pri­ori­tised the UNC over the wider pop­u­la­tion, not­ing that she had first is­sued a Re­pub­lic Day mes­sage to the na­tion be­fore ad­dress­ing the par­ty’s mem­ber­ship in an­oth­er.

Speak­ing ex­clu­sive­ly with Guardian Me­dia af­ter the Na­tion­al Awards Cer­e­mo­ny at Queen’s Hall, Port-of-Spain, last evening Per­sad-Bisses­sar dis­missed the crit­i­cism.