After being an almost permanent fixture in local politics for 50 years, The United Force (TUF) will not be represented when the tenth Parliament of Guyana is convened.
TUF raked in a paltry 885 votes at Monday’s polls, making it the only one of the four parties contesting the Monday’s polls not to gain any seat in the House. The party though will be represented on the Regional Democratic Councils (RDCs) of Regions 8 and 9 where it picked up a seat in both regions.
Faced with internal leadership wranglings ahead of this year’s elections, the party was also impacted by a court matter, as two factions developed within the party— one led by Valerie Garrido-Lowe and the other by former party leader Manzoor Nadir. The court case finished days before Nomination Day, and the party hurriedly put together a slate with Peter Persaud as its presidential candidate and Marissa Nadir as the prime ministerial candidate. The faction led by Garrido-Lowe subsequently teamed up with the Alliance For Change (AFC).
Speaking with this newspaper recently, the party’s presidential candidate Peter Persaud indicated that this will be the first parliament since 1964 where The United Force will not have a representative. He said the party was not surprised at its poor performance at the recent polls since it was unable to adequately campaign given the late solution to the court proceedings. Persaud said the party will not stand idly by, saying that it will be looking inwards and continue its political work.
“This is a very sad feeling for me,” former party leader Manzoor Nadir told Stabroek News yesterday when asked about the end of TUF’s representation in parliament. Nadir, who was a candidate for the incumbent PPP/C at the just concluded elections, said TUF reestablished itself in 1992 and had been contributing to national development in all areas. Since 2001, Nadir had served as a minister in the PPP/C administration.
Nadir said that over the years, the party contributed to political stability, constitutional reform and electoral reform. The party, he said, also played an important role in helping the vulnerable and moving the country forward.
TUF was founded by businessman Peter D’Aguiar in 1960, and the party was seen as a pro-capitalist movement. For many years it was regarded as a “third force” in local politics.
