After receiving many threats David St. Clair, the candidate for Congress of the People in Laventille West was badly beaten and remains in hospital. St Clair is now nursing serious internal and external injuries after being beaten repeatedly about the body with the flat side of a cutlass (planass) and a piece of wood by two men.
According to St. Clair, the COP has been the target of numerous extortion attempts to to peacefully conduct his campaign in the area. Over the last week violence directly related to the Trinidad and Tobago elections has steadily increased culminating in this brutal beating.
St. Clair in his hospital bed said there were three men, one with a cutlass, one with a piece of wood and another with a 9mm pistol. They shouted out, "We ain't want no f**king COP here!" It was then the seven minute beating began. St. Clair's injuries are not considered life threatening.
Meanwhile leader of the Congress of the People, Winston Dookeran slammed the attack and called for an immediate investigation as well as security escorts for all COP candidates. "It is an atrocity that must receive the immediate and full attention of our investigative resources. All the forces available to the Government must be directed at this ominous development in the election campaign."
He noted that "candidates and campaign teams in certain areas are being confronted with demands for protection money, and the culture of criminality that has flourished under the present administration is a grave and present danger to the peaceful conduct of the remaining period of the campaign".
Concerning his request for protection for COP candidates Dookeran's press statement said, "I am reaching out, now, to the Minister of National Security and the Prime Minister to endorse this measure to protect the integrity of our electoral process."
The violence related to Trinidad and Tobago elections for 2007 is very alarming to say the least.
