While the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) seeks to re­build af­ter suc­ces­sive elec­tion fail­ures, the courts may have to de­ter­mine the le­gal­i­ty of its in­ter­nal elec­tions as two can­di­dates con­test­ing the par­ty’s lead­er­ship sus­pect that the elec­tion is al­ready com­pro­mised.

For­mer Trade, In­dus­try, In­vest­ment and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Min­is­ter Vas­ant Bharath and for­mer Food Pro­duc­tion Min­is­ter De­vant Ma­haraj are call­ing for changes to the par­ty’s In­ter­nal Man­age­ment Elec­tions Com­mit­tee.

Bharath is pre­pared to take the mat­ter to court, but on­ly if his re­quest, in a let­ter, to UNC chair­man Pe­ter Kan­hai fails.

Bharath called for a meet­ing to dis­cuss hav­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives of each lead­er­ship can­di­date sit on the elec­tions com­mit­tee to en­sure trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty. How­ev­er, Ma­haraj, who al­so wrote to Kan­hai, is giv­ing the par­ty sev­en days to dis­solve and re­place the elec­tions com­mit­tee for face le­gal ac­tion.

While Bharath filed his nom­i­na­tion at the UNC’s head­quar­ters in Cou­va yes­ter­day, Ma­haraj did not. How­ev­er, Ma­haraj said the pa­pers were ready and would make a de­ci­sion be­fore the 4 pm dead­line. He lat­er de­cid­ed not to con­test the elec­tion.

“My lawyers ad­vised me that once I send in my nom­i­na­tion, it would be like I am agree­ing with the ir­reg­u­lar­i­ty. I am still go­ing to be ag­i­tat­ing from now un­til for a chance in the elec­tion com­mit­tee.”

De­spite some mem­bers wait­ing for her ar­rival, po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar did not show at the head­quar­ters, opt­ing to send an agent to sub­mit her nom­i­na­tion.

Bharath and Ma­haraj were scep­ti­cal af­ter re­ceiv­ing a voice note on No­vem­ber 10 in which they heard Per­sad-Bisses­sar say­ing that she was awake in­to the wee hours of the morn­ing with her lawyers, prepar­ing a new man­u­al. The fol­low­ing day, the par­ty is­sued an Elec­tion Man­u­al to guide mem­ber’s con­duct dur­ing the in­ter­nal elec­tions.

Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Jay­nati Lutch­me­di­al said Per­sad-Bisses­sar sought her in­put in­to guide­lines meant to ex­plain the Pub­lic Health Reg­u­la­tions and the con­duct of elec­tions for her own slate and their sup­port­ers.

How­ev­er, Bharath and Ma­haraj do not ac­cept this.

Bharath said it was strange that Per­sad-Bisses­sar would wait nine months af­ter the pan­dem­ic be­gan to now work on a COVID-19  pro­to­col doc­u­ment. 

“If that is the case, is it that the UNC, a le­git­i­mate or­gan­i­sa­tion, does not have a COVID man­u­al for con­duct­ing the elec­tions them­selves? I would have thought that the par­ty would have put out its own rules and reg­u­la­tion by which all par­tic­i­pants should ad­here.”

Bharath re­called Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s con­cern about the con­duct of the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion in the lead up to the Au­gust 10 gen­er­al elec­tions. He calls on her and the par­ty to up­hold the same stan­dards they re­quest­ed.

There is al­so the is­sue of who holds the post of Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary. Oropouche West MP Dave Tan­coo held the po­si­tion but had to re­sign as the par­ty’s con­sti­tu­tion pro­hibits sit­ting mem­bers of Par­lia­ment from hold­ing the Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary post. Ma­haraj and Bharath said when they in­quired who held the po­si­tion, they got no an­swers.

Ma­haraj stressed the im­por­tance as the Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary plays a role in ap­point­ing the elec­tions com­mit­tee. He said the com­mit­tee is head­ed by Ramesh Ma­haraj Per­sad, who is a mem­ber of the UNC’s Stand­ing Mem­ber­ship Com­mit­tee. He said this should wor­ry all can­di­dates, as the UNC was un­der­tak­ing a mass re­cruit­ment ex­er­cise and the gen­er­al sec­re­tary has to ap­prove each ap­pli­ca­tion per the con­sti­tu­tion.

“The ap­point­ment of this in­ter­nal elec­tions com­mit­tee is done in se­cret. We are hear­ing record­ings of the in­cum­bent po­lit­i­cal leader talk­ing about a man­u­al and the very next day the so-called in­de­pen­dent elec­tion com­mit­tee is­sued their own man­u­al. “It is very sus­pi­cious, and the crony­ism, nepo­tism and tra­di­tion of los­ing is some­thing the par­ty mem­ber­ship wants to get away from, and the con­duct of this elec­tion is ob­scene and vul­gar. “

While I am very much in­ter­est­ed in con­test­ing the po­si­tion, I will not sub­ject my­self, at this point, to be part of a fraud­u­lent process, un­less of course, guid­ed oth­er­wise by my at­tor­ney,” Ma­haraj said.