Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

UNC sources have dis­closed that Bas­deo Pan­day's "se­cret" slate of can­di­dates in­cludes his daugh­ter Mikela Pan­day and Dr Tim Gopeesingh, who are both ex­pect­ed to con­test the posts of deputy po­lit­i­cal lead­ers. All can­di­dates in the up­com­ing Jan­u­ary 24 in­ter­nal elec­tions are ex­pect­ed to file nom­i­na­tion pa­pers at the par­ty's head­quar­ters at Rien­zi Com­plex in Cou­va to­day. Sources said Pan­day, founder of the UNC, was the on­ly per­son head­ing to the polls with a slate of can­di­dates, as the oth­ers were fil­ing in­de­pen­dent­ly. Pan­day has kept the slate close to his chest. Calls to his cel­lu­lar phone went unan­swered yes­ter­day, and par­ty sources said he did not want to pub­li­cise the names be­fore nom­i­na­tion day.

Dur­ing their elec­tion cam­paigns, both Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Jack Warn­er said they were fil­ing nom­i­na­tion pa­pers in­de­pen­dent­ly, and were not on the same team. Per­sad-Bisses­sar could not say what time she was go­ing to file her nom­i­na­tion pa­pers to­day. "To­mor­row (to­day) is nom­i­na­tion day, and I will en­sure that all my pa­pers are prop­er­ly filed." Sources said Per­sad-Bisses­sar was the on­ly can­di­date who had sent in her nom­i­na­tion pa­pers for scruti­ny. Ac­cord­ing to par­ty guide­lines, each nom­i­na­tion had to be sup­port­ed by bona fide UNC mem­bers. Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj, who is con­test­ing the post of po­lit­i­cal leader, is al­so fil­ing pa­pers in­de­pen­dent­ly.

Ma­haraj, in an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, said he did not know what time he would file pa­pers. Al­so, he did not know who was on Pan­day's slate. How­ev­er, UNC sources said Vas­ant Bharath was al­so on Pan­day's slate and would come up against Warn­er for the post of chair­man. Chair­man of Rio Claro/Ma­yaro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Ram­lochan Pan­choo is ex­pect­ed to go back up as a re­gion­al co-or­di­na­tor on Pan­day's slate. For­mer may­or of Ch­agua­nas Su­ruj Ram­bachan is al­so ex­pect­ed to con­test a post in the elec­tions. Sources said for­mer Pan­day sup­port­ers, Sylvester Ramquar, Don Sylvester and Ru­pert Grif­fith, re­gion­al co-or­di­na­tors now aligned with Warn­er, are al­so fil­ing their nom­i­na­tion pa­pers in­de­pen­dent­ly. Nom­i­na­tions will open at Rien­zi Com­plex from 8 am to­day and close at 4 pm.