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Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) leader David Abdulah is urging Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to have thorough consultations on her proposed legislation to make it easier for citizens to arm themselves and to introduce stand-your-ground legislation because, he says, not everyone in the country voted for it.

Speaking at a virtual media conference on June 1, Abdulah said, "She (Persad-Bissessar) said the people voted for this, and she has a mandate. Of course, yes, the UNC and its coalition of interests party won 26 seats, however, the vote count that they got was just about 30 per cent of the total electorate – about 350,000 out of over 1,000,000 registered electors – so about 30 per cent.

"So it means while the UNC and its coalition of interests got the majority of the votes of people who cast their vote, remember the vote count was low. The turnout was only 54 per cent. So it means the majority of the population did not come out in a positive affirmative way to vote for the government. And so going forward, the government needs to listen carefully to people."