By Neto Baptiste
Newly named United Progressive Party (UPP) candidate for the St. Peter Constituency and national footballer, Tevaughn Harriette, has admitted that his involvement in the sports at both the community and national levels has helped to propel his young but promising political career.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show, the Parham forward, affectionately known as “Peter Redz,” said also that plans are afoot to shake things up in Parham where the structure of the popular club is concerned.
“Football is number one in the country and being part of that over the years has helped, and it will help in the future. For the new [next] season we [Parham FC] are hoping to have elections and change all of that because actually, Chet Greene is still the president of the club,” he said.
Harriette, who has won several national scoring titles with the Parham FC, said however that if elected to parliament, he would have no choice but to readjust his schedule which could see his playing career take a hit.
“If elected, the chances would be less for football to be honest. I’d probably take up a role with the youngsters in the second team and help them to get back the interest, get back the confidence, because if elected, to have the time to be training every day for the Premier Division and still national team, I don’t think it would be possible, so if elected, I’d more take a step back with the Second Division team in ABAYA and help the youths develop,” he said.
As for his plans within the constituency going forward, Harriette listed education and healthcare as being high on his priority list.
“For one, a youth programme in terms of education because there are a lot of youths who, after school [day], are just on the streets [doing nothing] so if you have an educational programme for maybe two hours as they would have spent some time in school for the day, have them go over some stuff. They have to learn that this is the way forward and they must stay in school because education is paramount,” the striker said.
“Two, the health care because the clinic in Pares is actually dormant at the moment, and the one in Parham has some leakage, so those would be the top two priorities whether I win or lose,” he added. Harriette (65 votes) won the St. Peter primary ahead of Colin Isaac (23 votes) and Chaneil Imhoff (20 votes) held early September. There were two spoilt ballots with 110 votes cast.