Scenes at the Oropouche East Constituency office were quiet for most of last night, as only a handful of UNC members showed up to support leadership candidate Dr Roodal Moonilal.
By 9.30 pm, Moonilal, who said earlier that he was optimistic about defeating Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, was sitting in his office, away from supporters.
Among those present were Caroni East MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh and former press secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister Francis Joseph.
There were no cheers but only looks of concern from supporters watching the television coverage of the results, which at that time showed Persad-Bissessar leading both Moonilal and Vasant Bharath by over 1,000 votes.
Speaking to reporters, Gopeesingh, who contested for the position of chairman on Moonilal’s Loyalist slate, said that whatever the outcome, the party would unite and give their support to the leader.
He said, if Persad-Bissessar was re-elected despite her shortcomings, those issues would be dealt with. Gopeesingh said if elected, he would help to bring healing to the party since they planned to stay as a united front in the Parliament.
Close to 10 pm, Moonilal said they had been getting some election results that were not flattering for them, but they were still hopeful since it would take some time for the bigger results in the bigger constituencies to be tallied.
The bigger concern, he said, was the number of irregularities in the elections where 2,000 people were not allowed to vote, people’s names which appeared multiple times on the list in constituencies, and people who were seen with ballot papers outside the polling stations.
Moonilal said he has already spoken to his lawyer Larry Lalla and they would take statements on the matter.