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The New BNTU President Speaks
Thu, April 20, 2017
And here now is that interview with the new president of the BNTU Elena Smith - this was done about 40 minutes ago when a winner was declared:

Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"Share with us your first reaction to being elected as the new national president of the union you served for 20 years?"

Elena Smith, President - BNTU
"I think the first word I must say is grateful. I'm grateful, I'm over joyed. Words can't express the feeling that I got. The support I got from my members it was so overwhelming that I don't know how to say thank you, but thank you to all the people who supported me."

Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"Were you confident that you would get the victory today?"

Elena Smith, President - BNTU
"I had some level of confidence, but I wasn't sure, because you never know - people might say to you 'I will support you' but when the days comes you don't know what they do or what they will do. So I wasn't over confident, but I was sure of my members from my branch."

Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"You are the first president in 9 years I am told, does your election mean a shift from the Luke Palacio regime or what exactly does this mean? Do you intend to take the union a different route, do you intend to carry on his work? What's your vision for the union?"

Elena Smith, President - BNTU
"Well first of all there is no Luke regime, it is the BNTU and it is what the members say is what our president and our council go by and so my plan is to continue to work with our members and to work with them and to do what it is that our members want. When I need to stand for them I will do that. When I need to work for them otherwise, I will do that. But it's not about me or brother Luke. It's about BNTU and our members. They will tell us how to go about doing their business."

Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"What's the first thing you intend to institute? Do you have any ideas to pitch to your members to see if they will support your ideas as to how to improve the union?"

Elena Smith, President - BNTU
"Well one of the main thing for me is communication and education and communication in the form of better technology. I think we need to be moving up with the century as - time is going by, we see that our younger people, our younger teachers are into technology. As a union we must become that as well for them so that we can benefit them. So my focus will be education and communication."

Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"Now, when Mr. Luke spoke for the union, whether or not the persons in the public liked or hated him, whatever feelings they had against, the nation took notice of what he had to say, because he represented the strongest union. Do you foresee you have that ability to fill his shoes, to speak for the union whenever they take any positions whether or not it is adversarial to the government?"

Elena Smith, President - BNTU
"I have no problems with that. As long as my membership give us the mandate. I will go by that. It doesn't matter who like it or doesn't like it - if the members say so, that's what I am going by. I am not afraid to speak and not afraid to stand up."

Reporter
"You've been part of the union for so many years now, you ran previously for this post and was defeated. How do you feel now actually winning this very important post?"

Elena Smith, President - BNTU
"I feel that the extra years I took to qualify myself, and when I say qualify I don't mean papers and thing, but to get more experience I think has helped me and my members and the members of BNTU on a whole have seen where I have grown and they have seen that Elena Smith is about BNTU, not about any politics and I think that is what pushed me over the edge today."

Reporter
"Before the election, the council of management spoke about this infiltration for political interference, do you believe at the end of the day there is still infiltration of this political interference?"

Elena Smith, President - BNTU
"I believe we do. We have seen persons, we have seen certain things happening, we have seen certain texts going around, we have heard of certain meetings and so there is a saying in creole 'if it sounds like a duck, quack like a duck, it is a duck" and so everybody is saying that was happening - it was happening."

It was a landslide victory: Elena Smith got 349 votes, Troy Coleman got 147, and Mario Mesh got 140 - meaning she got more than they did combined. The 630 voting members is almost three times the number which voted in the last convention.

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