United National Congress (UNC) chairman Jack Warner has been soliciting other Opposition MPs to support the UNC's new political leader, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, for the position of Opposition Leader in the House of Representatives.
Warner said Opposition MPs aligned to the defeated UNC political leader, Basdeo Panday, were invited to unite and back calls for Persad-Bissessar to replace Panday as Opposition Leader. "I have spoken to some MPs, some of whom have agreed to go along with Mrs Bissessar but I believe the better thing would have been for Mr Panday, of his own initiative, to relinquish the post and therefore I will first wait and see what he is doing," Warner said in a telephone interview with the Trinidad Guardian yesterday afternoon. Section 83 of T&T's Constitution states that the President can appoint the Leader of the Opposition based on his judgment about who commanded the support of the majority of Opposition members. At present, four Opposition MPs pledged their support to Persad-Bissessar. They were Warner (Chaguanas West MP), Winston Peters (Mayaro MP), Harry Partap (Cumuto/Manzanilla MP) and Nizam Baksh (Naparima MP).
Sources also indicated Dr Tim Gopeesingh (Caroni East MP) and Chandresh Sharma (Fyzabad MP) also offered their support to Persad-Bissessar. Calls to Persad-Bissessar went unanswered. Panday has declared it was not unusual for the political leader of the United National Congress (UNC) to not hold the position of Opposition Leader in the House of Representatives. Panday said it would not be the first time separate persons in the UNC held the position of political leader and Opposition Leader. "That is quite possible. When Kamla (Persad-Bissessar) was Opposition Leader, Winston Dookeran was political leader so that is not wrong, that is perfectly alright," Panday said in a telephone interview yesterday. "They are two separate functions. As political leader of the party, your business is with the party. As Leader of the Opposition, my business is with the Parliament." Panday reiterated his fate as Opposition Leader depended on the members of the Opposition. "If nine members want me, I will remain there, yes. It is not a question of wanting to, if nine members want me to serve, I will," he said.
"Whether I remain as Opposition Leader or not depends on the Opposition members of Parliament. They are the ones who have to write the President and say, 'look, we want somebody else.'" On April 25, 2006, President George Maxwell Richards revoked Panday's appointment as Opposition Leader after Panday was convicted of fraud for failing to disclose a London bank account according to the Integrity Act. One day after, seven UNC MPs announced their support of Kamla Persad-Bissessar for Opposition Leader. She was appointed to the post on April 27 and agreed to step down from the position following Panday's successful appeal of his conviction.
Although Persad-Bissessar was made Opposition Leader, Winston Dookeran was the political leader of the UNC at the time. It was a position he held from October 2, 2005. Breakdown in communication between Persad-Bissessar and Dookeran was made evident in the October 2006 debate on the national budget in the House of Representatives that came to a premature end after poor co-ordinaation among Opposition members resulted in no member making further contributions in the debate.