Hot Like Pepper - Move to dump Panday? - Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago : Move to dump Panday?

2007/9/13 4:40:00

The Trinidad Express newspaper is reporting that certain influential people in the United National Congress are putting pressure on UNC Chairman and Political Leader Basdeo Panday to hand over the party's leadership to Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

Basdeo Panday was Prime Minister of Trinidad &Tobago from 1995 to 2001. He was removed from office by President A.N.R Robinson after inconclusive results of a general election that gave his party and the opposition People's National Movement 18 seats each in the 36-seat House of Representatives. President Robinson chose PNM Leader Patrick Manning as prime minister, although Panday was the incumbent and his United National Congress won the higher popular vote.

The report claims Panday and Deputy Political Leader Jack Warner met in London recently to
discuss the handover but didn't reach a decision. A top UNC source denies that.

UNC Deputy Political Leader, Jack Warner. He is one of the main pillars of the United National Congress and has been a driving force for opposition unity. Warner is also Vice-President of FIFA and travelled to more than 161 countries and has met political leaders and statesmen across the globe.

Another Express report claims that Panday is holding out for another term as prime minister in case the new UNC Alliance wins the election and forms the government following the upcoming general election.

The paper quotes Bissessar as saying that she knows nothing about such an arrangement. And it says it has not been able to reach either Panday or Warner to comment on the matter.

TT Opposition Leader, Kamla Persad-Bissessar. She was the country's first female Attorney General and was the first woman to act in the post of Prime Minister. Bissessar is also a Deputy Political Leader of the UNC.

The UNC founder has always said he wants to unite the opposition against the PNM but while smaller political parties have agreed to an alliance the Congress of the People (COP), led by former UNC Leader Winston Dookeran, has thrown cold water on the proposal.

The COP is boasting that it has the strength to face the PNM and win the next election. It says its 'Red Rally' last Sunday was evidence that Trinidad and Tobago is fully behind the party.

Political analysts say Prime Minister Patrick Manning has found himself between a rock and a hard place and would like to see a splintered opposition, which would almost guarantee him a clear majority. But they say a single united opposition like the one that dethroned George Chambers in 1986 could send Manning to the opposition benches.