?Deputy Po­lit­i­cal Leader of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) Jack Warn­er is back­ing both Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj for lead­er­ship of the par­ty. Warn­er, who is in Cape Town, South Africa did not say who he deemed to be the bet­ter in a press re­lease yes­ter­day. "I have said be­fore that Kam­la is a per­son who is well-qual­i­fied and quite ca­pa­ble to lead the par­ty and I stand by that. "I have al­so sup­port­ed my friend and po­lit­i­cal col­league Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj who is al­so well qual­i­fied for the post of po­lit­i­cal leader."

Speak­ing of change and the Ram­jack-G fac­tion, Warn­er said, "The pur­pose of the Move­ment for Change has been to ef­fect change in the par­ty and I am hap­py that this change is now tak­ing place, which means we have served our pur­pose so far." He said Op­po­si­tion Leader Bas­deo Pan­day was fac­ing, for the first time, chal­lenges from top mem­bers of the UNC for the lead­er­ship. Warn­er said, "This shows that these mem­bers are con­fi­dent that the UNC needs to change and that they trust the mem­ber­ship to make the right de­ci­sion."

He said he has al­ways trust­ed the par­ty mem­ber­ship to make the right de­ci­sion. He added: "When the elec­tions are over we will work with who­ev­er is the leader to make the changes which are nec­es­sary to re­build our great par­ty to win the next gen­er­al elec­tion." Warn­er reaf­firmed that he will be con­test­ing the post of chair­man. How­ev­er, speak­ing with the Sun­day Guardian, Ma­haraj re­it­er­at­ed that par­ty peo­ple have been sug­gest­ing he would be its next leader. He re­mains open to con­sul­ta­tion or dis­cus­sion with Per­sad-Bisses­sar.