00:00When I worked with Minister Stuart Young in that capacity as the Commissioner of Police,
00:05I think the country would have seen we made a very good team.
00:07We were able to handle COVID, we were able to handle security,
00:11and he provided me with the support, the leadership, organizing meetings.
00:16So I have seen him work in his capacity as a leader,
00:20and it is difficult for me to criticize him on it.
00:23Political leader of the National Transformation Alliance, Gary Griffith,
00:27had only praises for Minister Stuart Young following the PNM's General Council decision
00:32over the weekend to support him as the country's next Prime Minister
00:36when Dr. Rowley steps down this year.
00:38Responding to TV6 at a news conference held at the NTA's San Fernando office on Monday,
00:44Griffith said his confidence in Young's leadership capabilities
00:48does not suggest the prospect of an alliance between his and the ruling party.
00:53The PNM has always been one to go alone, so this is not the NTA in any form or fashion
00:57having any intention to say that we intend or would like to work with the PNM.
01:01It is not on the table. The PNM is a very powerful party, very respected.
01:06He says one issue he continues to find distasteful is certain individuals and entities
01:11trying to taint the minister by associating him with the drug charge of a woman a few years ago.
01:17What these attacks do, Griffith says, is also to negatively impact a woman
01:23who happens to be a relative of his.
01:47The NTA hopes to contest all 41 seats in this year's general election.
01:57So far, the party has announced seven candidates.
02:01Asked about NTA's intention to join hands with other parties like the COP and HOPE,
02:07Griffith says, for now, they are being very cautious about such a decision.
02:12An alliance of bodies, if we have the same vision, the same principles, the same ideologies,
02:17we will work together. We are just being very cautious because I was aware
02:22that a political leader was meeting with someone else for weeks before that person
02:27was recently appointed as a newly appointed political leader of another party.
02:31And you see that marriage of convenience, you want to use the parties, bring them in,
02:36say they're working with us, to get the floating voters to vote for your candidates
02:40in the marginal seats to have a 21-seat UNC government, and then spit us out
02:44and then we'll have no participation, no involvement. That can't happen.
02:48Cindy Raghubar-Tikkasing, TV6 News.
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