The Minister of National Security, Carlos Perdomo, area representative for the Caribbean Shores constituency, handily beat his challenger, first time convention candidate, Roger Espejo, at a convention held yesterday, Sunday, at the Trinity Methodist School.
Espejo, a UDP City Councilor, lost by 310 votes.
Voting commenced at 5:00 p.m., at the school. Of the 1,080 voters who showed up, 695 cast their ballots for Perdomo, while 385 cast their ballots in support of Espejo.
Amandala visited the grounds yesterday to view the democratic competition in progress and spoke to numerous supporters, inclusive of Ministers as well as a City Councilor.
The voting began at 10:00 a.m. and finished at 5:00 p.m.
Espejo was asked how he felt about being an “underdog”. He replied, “I am feeling very confident, very good, we have done all our work and today is the day that, with the combination of all our hard work, the proof is in the pudding.
“We have a lot of different supporters coming in, but our ground team is outside working; they have been explaining to us that they want a change. We’ve done a lot of hard work, but the real work begins after the convention.”
Espejo continued by saying, “Win or lose, we need to work together, both camps, for the better of Caribbean shores.”
In the event that he won, Espejo explained that area residents could expect, “more connectivity with the people, and definitely more attention to the marginalized areas that need attention.”
Perdomo, for his part, told us that he had not lost belief that his area residents are in full support of him.
“Up to now, as you can see, our people are coming out in droves at this stage, quite a bit more than our opponent’s; we won’t get too overconfident, but we feel really good that they’re coming out for us.
“First of all most of my supporters in Caribbean shores believe in me and trust in me. As I was campaigning, the major concern was that I have to be more visible to them and visit them more. That would be one thing that I could say immediately, I will have to say that until the general elections I would have to be more visible, visiting more often, moving around in the constituency and maybe seeking their advice a little bit more.”
Perdomo told us today that he was congratulated by Espejo inside the counting room yesterday after the results showed him as victorious: “He congratulated me, we shook hands and even took some pictures,” Perdomo told us today.
“I feel very happy, the people of Caribbean Shores have now reaffirmed that they want me to represent them. Even though the campaign is over, both of us [Espejo and himself] are working together,” he added.
Minister Patrick Faber and Councilor Phillip Willoughby, among others, supported Perdomo.
“I am out here supporting Minister Perdomo … he is a close family member of mine … [because of] all that he has done and brought to the party as a senior official; I think someone with that character is what we need here at this time, not to say that his opponent doesn’t have the character, but I believe there is a time and place for everything,” said Willoughby.
We also asked Willoughby whether he could foresee himself vying in this arena of politics in the near future, as his fellow City Council member, Espejo, has done:
“That is for the people to decide. I am looking at how I diligently complete my term at the council and then I think within six months to three months of that I will decide what the next step is,” he replied.
Perdomo told us that he is trying to compile the input given to him by his constituents into a “working plan.”
“I am very happy; it was a wonderful victory,” said Perdomo.