UNC manifesto plans include raising legal age of gambling, ganja use to 25
Senior Political Reporter
The United National Congress’ (UNC) general election manifesto will include provisions for raising the legal age for marijuana use and gambling to 25 years and older, supporting victims of crime with jobs and housing, and introducing a constitutional right for an accused to have a trial within a reasonable time.
UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Monday revealed some of the party’s manifesto plans for what she said will be the “mother of all elections.”
She said a UNC government will also consider introducing a system of monetary rewards for police officers and divisions where crime is kept low. And there will be no property tax or increases in water and electricity rates in this dire economic climate. Speaking at UNC’s meeting in Chaguanas, she said the party has its draft manifesto and the first copy will be unveiled online later.
“We’re out front; we’re ready for this general election whenever it’s called,” she said.
She also warned, “UNC people have belly! Stand up for yourselves. Don’t get browbeaten! Don’t back back or back down. Many times, it’s the UNC people swallowing hook, line and sinker PNM narrative and repeating the nonsense! You must believe in yourself that you’re UNC and proud and resilient, and you’ll persevere and win!
“So put some steel in your backbone ‘cause this fight will not be easy. They’ll come with their bag of tricks, gimmicks, and lies to damage everybody. They’re the best people at character assassination. So don’t get weak and faint-hearted when they talk about ‘Madam A and Madam B and Mr X and Y’.
“This is too important. This is the mother of all elections for us in T&T. This isn’t a time to get weak, weary, and faint-hearted! I ask you to commit to come out in your hundreds of thousands to vote. Every vote counts. We need you—your strength and your resilience. Stand your ground! Don’t let the PNM frighten you. Brace yourself!”
Criminal justice
repair plan
She said the crime situation was out of control because the criminal and civil justice system is in a mess.
“We have to fix it via a separate Justice Ministry.”
Persad-Bissessar said part one of UNC’s plans for that system will do the following:
• Comprehensive review of all criminal laws to weed out obsolete ones that are oppressive to a free democratic society or cause unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Categorise the offences of murder and rape into first-degree and second-degree murder.
• Introduce a constitutional right for an accused to have a trial within a reasonable time, as there may be innocent people waiting.
• Place victims at the centre of the criminal justice system from the beginning: providing support including restitution, job placements, housing, and social programs. Due to the current low detection and conviction rate, support will be given regardless of whether someone is caught/convicted.
• Consider introducing monetary rewards for police officers and divisions where crime is kept low and crime-fighting targets are met, to motivate them.
• Provide needed resources to ensure that cases involving offences against children and sexual offences are determined rapidly.
• Raise the legal age for marijuana use and gambling to 25 years and older. *Increase the number of functional courtrooms. Right now, there is a deficit. Each judge of the High Court must have a designated courtroom to ensure they can sit every day.
• Provide more courtrooms in highly populated areas outside the capital: Chaguanas, Rio Claro, Sangre Grande, and Diego Martin.
• Increase critical support for the judiciary to ensure backlog reduction and trial-indictable cases within two to three years.
• Modernise prisons and break up large prisons into smaller ones for better inmate monitoring.
• Create smaller detention centres around T&T to break up gang activity and ensure closer family support to prisoners by enabling regular visitation. Ensure that incarcerated people are allowed frequent visitation by their children.
• Establish lower-security prisons for first-time non-violent offenders who can get daytime work release.
• Implement appropriate social programmes involving training and life skills to prevent recidivism.
• Comprehensively reform/reorient the education system to cater to all children, not just academically gifted ones, and particularly to identify young people with learning disabilities/vulnerabilities so they can be guided to productive activities. Most criminals have not been successful in the education system.
• Encourage the participation of NGOs and service organisations in mentoring youth, vital to preventing them from falling under gang leaders’ influence.
• Support single parents, including after-school care, to ensure children are supervised. Nationwide homework centres for reintroduction.
• Resources for the DPP’s and Public Defender’s offices ensuring better conditions/salaries.
More plans include
* Placing police officers to patrol inside schools to protect children.
* Lower taxes. and being against the introduction of any new taxes, and financial system deregulation for easier access.
* Lower fuel prices, consider reopening the Petrotrin refinery, no VAT on 7,000 food items.
* A workers’ agenda; reopening GATE; free laptops for secondary school children; tablets for primary school children.
* Expanding Children’s Life Fund to cover more illnesses.
* Review the demerit system and halt “oppressive abusive ticketing of motorists.”
* Comprehensive audit of HDC applications–contacting and seeing all who still need housing prioritising those with long-standing applications; Land for the Landless policy.
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