Deputy political leader of the United National Congress (UNC) Jack Warner has described the party’s national executive as nothing more than an illegal cabal.

Warner said so in a letter to the party’s acting general secretary Dr Glen Ramadarsingh on purported disciplinary action against him. The letter was dated September 2. Warner repeated his demand to be given details of the charges brought against him. He said the disciplinary committee seemed determined to proceed without agreement on a suitable date for a meeting with him. Warner said he could not attend previously set meetings because of other prior engagements.

He said the entire procedure bore all the hallmarks of a kangaroo court. Warner said the party’s national executive had no jurisdiction to consider any disciplinary allegations against him or to refer him to the disciplinary committee. He added that under the UNC’s constitution, members of the national executive , except the political leader, held office for two years but there had been no executive elections in the party since 2005.

Warner said he was entitled to appeal the matter at a national congress of the party. Warner, Tabaquite MP Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj and Mayaro MP Winston Peters (Gypsy) have been very critical of party leader Basdeo Panday, saying the party needed to make significant changes in order to successfully challenge the PNM in the next general elections due by 2012.