Gail Alexan­der

UNC MP Win­ston "Gyp­sy" Pe­ters, while favour­ing rec­on­cil­i­a­tion in the par­ty, has said Bas­deo Pan­day should not con­test his post of po­lit­i­cal leader in up­com­ing elec­tions. "I ent say­ing Mr Pan­day has to leave or any­thing like that, but he should step aside–re­cuse him­self from con­test­ing the par­ty elec­tions–and let UNC go for­ward since he has giv­en all he can and has noth­ing else to of­fer," Pe­ters said yes­ter­day. Pe­ters was com­ment­ing on the pro­posed date of Jan­u­ary 2010 for the long-await­ed UNC par­ty elec­tions. He said he was not as­pir­ing to con­test any post.

"I don't know if that will change lat­er on," he added. Pe­ters was al­so asked about spec­u­la­tion in the par­ty about pos­si­ble rec­on­cil­i­a­tion be­tween the Pan­day hi­er­ar­chy and the Ram­jack fac­tion. Es­tranged UNC deputy Jack Warn­er, when asked about the mat­ter on the week­end, had said he had not heard any­thing about it, but that rec­on­cil­i­a­tion "is the on­ly sen­si­ble thing." Pe­ters al­so agreed that rec­on­cil­i­a­tion was the best thing. "We all have to be unit­ed with­in the UNC and with every­body else, but uni­ty will on­ly come when Mr Pan­day steps down," he said. "I can't see rec­on­cil­i­a­tion hap­pen­ing prop­er­ly if he re­mains leader and if he con­tests par­ty elec­tions the re­sults will be the same. If the re­sults in that are the same, you can't ex­pect change. The rea­son the COP ex­ists is be­cause of him.

"If Mr Pan­day con­tests the lead­er­ship and wins, peo­ple will have to go on their own and do what they have to do mi­nus the UNC. Peo­ple will see the light and go to the COP and UNC will be­come a mi­nor­i­ty en­ti­ty." Pe­ters said he sup­port­ed moves by Warn­er to con­tin­ue talks with COP leader Win­ston Dook­er­an when Warn­er re­turns from Eg­pyt this week­end. Asked if he will join COP, Pe­ters said, "I'll do any­thing that is po­lit­i­cal­ly cor­rect to take T&T for­ward and present a strong al­ter­na­tive to the PNM–T&T needs this." Asked if the Ram­jack fac­tion would fare bet­ter with the COP and strength­en that par­ty to win elec­tions, Pe­ters,how­ev­er, added, "For the COP and UNC to win any elec­tion there must be a com­ing to­geth­er. Pe­ters who is on UNC dis­ci­pli­nary charges said he didn't care if the No­vem­ber re­port on this mat­ter pro­pos­es his ex­pul­sion from UNC.