THE EDITOR: The KNM – Kamla's National Movement – has unseated the PNM (People's National Movement).

The writing was on the wall from day one of this brief general election campaign. The PNM appeared bereft of new ideas in how to sell itself to the nation on why it should be returned to power.

Weird ideas were bandied about. A ministry of efficiency which really was an admission by the PNM of being wholly inefficient over the past ten years. A prime minister admitting that better could be done.

A political leader who lost his political potency and was reduced to spewing crass utterances about dogs in the PNM and how good he was at shovelling up matter left behind by farm animals.

We saw a disjointed campaign where prominent PNM government officials were absent from the platform. When the momentum shifted and the mood of the population swung firmly to the KNM, the PNM resorted to its tired, long-expired tactic of dirty politics.

We heard talk of black vans with people having rum and ganja and cash to induce black people to vote a certain way.

We saw some women ministers say the vilest things about the UNC's elder stateswoman and leader. That she was too old and senile to lead a government. While the PNM was floundering in the wake of the yellow tide, the KNM was gathering steam and pushing balisiers to the curb.

I was not surprised when the KNM won the general elections. What surprised me was the resounding cuttail the PNM suffered. Even Tobago rejected them.

The elections are over. We now must take off our red and tellow T-shirts, put them away in the closet and resume living as citizens of TT, working, playing and striving together to build our nation.

To the KNM, all eyes are on you now. Expectations are high that the good governance the population voted overwhelmingly for, will now materialise.

For the PNM, deep introspection must take place. Deep reflection too. What went wrong? Who is to blame? How to rise up and come again? For now, the country can exhale, as we all consign to the rubbish heap of history, Mr Young's ineffective but thankfully very brief tenure as prime minister. Time to move on.

LEE MERRICK

San Fernando

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