Jan­nelle Bernard

Se­nior Re­porter

jan­nelle.bernard@cnc3.co.tt

MP for Ma­yaro Rush­ton Paray says he does not be­lieve he will be vic­timised for is­su­ing a pub­lic call for in­ter­nal elec­tions in the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC).

In mak­ing the call last Fri­day, Paray claimed to have the back­ing of more than 100 par­ty mem­bers. Since then, how­ev­er, the ma­jor­i­ty of UNC MPs, coun­cil­lors and oth­er se­nior par­ty mem­bers have come out in sup­port of par­ty leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

Speak­ing on Free­dom 106.5FM yes­ter­day, Paray re­it­er­at­ed that his call for the in­ter­nal elec­tions to be held when con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly due in June was in no way an at­tack on Per­sad-Bisses­sar, and he does not feel po­lit­i­cal­ly threat­ened.

“I will tell you that Rush­ton Paray has a very bright fu­ture in the pol­i­tics of Trinidad and To­ba­go, but I want to make it ab­solute­ly clear that my fu­ture sits strong­ly and steadi­ly in the bo­som of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress,” he said.

Paray said he be­lieves when he files his MP nom­i­na­tion pa­pers, he will be treat­ed with­out prej­u­dice.

“I don’t think that there will be any vin­dic­tive­ness on their part, I will file my nom­i­na­tion for Ma­yaro. I do be­lieve I have a con­tri­bu­tion to con­tin­ue mak­ing to the par­ty I be­long to, and I do be­lieve I have a con­tri­bu­tion to make to na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment as an MP.”

The UNC in­ter­nal elec­tions are con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly due in June, while the lead­er­ship elec­tion is due in 2025.