Ani­ka Gumbs-San­di­ford

Three coun­cil­lors of the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) and an al­der­man broke ranks yes­ter­day and did not ad­here to di­rec­tives from their par­ty to let the sta­tus quo stand at the Ma­yaro Rio Claro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion.

Coun­cil­lors Matthew Pierre, Fitzroy Ot­t­ley, Dansam Dhan­sook and new­ly-ap­point­ed al­der­man Avind Moo­nan may face dis­ci­pli­nary ac­tion which could lead to them be­ing ex­pelled from the par­ty, of­fi­cials said yes­ter­day. Pierre, Ot­t­ley, Dhan­sook and Moo­nan were ex­pect­ed to ab­stain from vot­ing and al­low the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) to re­gain con­trol of the cor­po­ra­tion.

Deputy po­lit­i­cal leader of the PNM Nafeeza Mo­hammed and Sen­a­tor Li­nus Rogers were sent to over­see the pro­ceed­ing to en­sure that the di­rec­tives were fol­lowed, sources said. They both con­firmed yes­ter­day that they had re­ceived di­rec­tives for the sta­tus quo to stand. How­ev­er, the three PNM coun­cil­lors and the al­der­man opt­ed to de­fy the di­rec­tives and con­test for the po­si­tion of chair­man and vice chair­man break­ing the sta­tus quo. Dhan­sook was nom­i­nat­ed by the PNM, and Gan­garam Ram­lo­gan by the UNC, both con­test­ing to be elect­ed as pre­sid­ing of­fi­cer.

The six coun­cil­lors and two al­der­men from both sides cast their votes which re­sult­ed in a four to four tie. This made way for lots to be drawn where the names of Dhan­sook and Ram­lo­gan were placed in bowl and shak­en. The name Ram­lo­gan was pulled and this au­to­mat­i­cal­ly meant that the UNC re­ceived one ex­tra vote break­ing the four to four dead­lock. A top PNM of­fi­cial said, "They have a clear con­science. They could not deal with hand­ing back over the cor­po­ra­tion to the UNC. They tried but things did not work in their favour."

Ju­bi­la­tion erupt­ed at the cor­po­ra­tion with Princes Town North MP Sub­has Pan­day clap­ping and danc­ing say­ing, "Tell Jack Warn­er we did not make no deal, tell Jack Warn­er we did not make no deal." UNC coun­cil­lors Glen Ram, Haseree Ram­dan and al­der­man Ram­lochan Pan­choo, who was re-elect­ed as chair­man, hugged each oth­er. Ram­dan was al­so re-elect­ed as deputy chair­man. This caused emo­tions to run high with a near face-off be­tween Dhan­sook and Pan­day. Both men ex­changed heat­ed words, point­ing fin­gers at each oth­er.

Dhan­sook, how­ev­er, did not back down and ac­cused Pan­choo of beg­ging the PNM coun­cil­lors and al­der­man to ab­stain from vot­ing. On Tues­day, the UNC coun­cil­lors vot­ed for PNM al­der­man Moo­nan. The PNM ab­stained from vot­ing. Dhan­sook said, "They have no shame." He claimed that Pan­choo met with the three PNM coun­cil­lors and Rogers and Mo­hammed. He said, "What are they cel­e­brat­ing. They are shame­less...it is a dis­grace. We are very dis­ap­point­ed he shame­less­ly met with us and ne­go­ti­at­ed for chair­man­ship and now MPs com­ing here to lie. The elect­ed chair­man went and ne­go­ti­ate with the PNM. He is shame­less."

Pan­choo, how­ev­er, de­nied the al­le­ga­tion say­ing, "I do not know what Dhan­sook is speak­ing about."

Pan­day said Dhan­sook was an em­bar­rass­ment to his con­stituen­cy and the cor­po­ra­tion. He al­so crit­i­cised the PNM coun­cil­lors and al­der­man, say­ing that they broke the sta­tus quo. De­scrib­ing the move as, "shock­ing," Pan­day said, "When the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Re­form Bill was brought to Par­lia­ment, I ar­gued that it was an at­tempt to huff this re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tion. Pan­day said he filed an amend­ment to the mo­tion and agree­ment was made to let the sta­tus quo stand. Pan­day said the UNC was not ex­pect­ing to have any ob­jec­tion with the elec­tion of chair­man and vice-chair­man. He said, "We thought the sta­tus quo was go­ing to re­main. What they did was that they chose to run the run. Warn­er said we made a deal...we made no deal. He is a crazy man."