Gail Alexan­der

Out­go­ing Op­po­si­tion Leader Bas­deo Pan­day starts pack­ing to move out of the Op­po­si­tion Leader's of­fice, as in­com­ing Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to­day dis­cuss­es re­in­state­ment of two fired Op­po­si­tion of­fice em­ploy­ees and axed Sen­a­tor Lyn­di­ra Ou­dit.

Pan­day yes­ter­day con­firmed prepa­ra­tions to move out of the Op­po­si­tion Leader's Charles Street, Port-of-Spain, of­fice. Pan­day added: "I don't have much to pack, just a few files." Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so con­firmed yes­ter­day re­in­state­ment of fired Op­po­si­tion of­fice staffers Col­in Par­tap and Dave Tan­coo and for­mer Sen­a­tor Ou­dit would be dis­cussed at to­day's UNC par­lia­men­tary cau­cus. Pan­day said he would not at­tend the cau­cus which deals with Per­sad-Bisses­sar's im­pend­ing ap­point­ment as Op­po­si­tion Leader. "I don't be­lieve it would serve any use­ful pur­pose," Pan­day added. Per­sad -Bisses­sar on the week­end fi­nal­ly ob­tained the nec­es­sary ma­jor­i­ty of votes of sup­port from UNC MPs to be­come Op­po­si­tion Leader. This was sup­ple­ment­ed yes­ter­day with fur­ther sup­port from UNC MP Vas­ant Bharath,mak­ing it a to­tal of nine of the 15 UNC MPs sanc­tion­ing change in the post.

A let­ter in­di­cat­ing the sup­port and seek­ing the change will be sent to­mor­row to Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards, af­ter to­day's cau­cus. The let­ter is be­ing sent ex­act­ly a month af­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar wrest­ed the post of UNC leader from Pan­day in UNC's Jan­u­ary 24par­ty elec­tion. Per­sad-Bisses­sar said yes­ter­day she was not sure if she would be sworn in as Op­po­si­tion Leader in time to take up the Op­po­si­tion Leader's chair at to­mor­row's sit­ting of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives or Fri­day's House sit­ting. "But it will be this week," she added. Al­so to be dis­cussed at to­day's cau­cus are new seat­ing arrange­ments in the House for Pan­day af­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar is sworn in as Op­po­si­tion Leader.

Sources said Pan­day may be placed to sit on the left side of Per­sad-Bisses­sar in Par­lia­ment and all oth­er UNC MPs would move down one seat. They added that UNC Sen­a­tor Ou­dit and Op­po­si­tion of­fice em­ploy­ees Par­tap and Tan­coo–whom Pan­day re­placed and fired re­spec­tive­ly re­cent­ly – would be re­in­stat­ed by Per­sad-Bisses­sar. Asked about it, Per­sad- Bisses­sar con­firmed con­sul­ta­tion would be held on those is­sues at to­day's cau­cus. Yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she had not­ed a com­ment from Pan­day that he would not be at­tend­ing to­day's cau­cus to dis­cuss the var­i­ous is­sues. Oth­er MPs, in­clud­ing Cou­va South MP Kelvin Ram­nath and Tabaquite MP Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj, al­so said they would not at­tend. Sev­er­al UNC Sen­a­tors, ap­point­ed by Pan­day, said yes­ter­day they could not at­tend to­day's 3.30 pm cau­cus ei­ther since they had to at­tend to­day's Sen­ate ses­sion. UNC MP Dr Hamza Rafeeq, re­cu­per­at­ing from re­cent ill­ness, is on leave from Par­lia­ment un­til mid-March and over­seas.