?Yvonne Webb & Shas­tri Boodan

Af­ter 44 years in the pol­i­tics of Trinidad and To­ba­go, Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) founder and for­mer po­lit­i­cal leader, Bas­deo Pan­day, is out of the 2010 gen­er­al elec­tion.

Pan­day con­firmed yes­ter­day af­ter­noon, af­ter the dead­line to file nom­i­na­tion pa­pers, that he had not done so. "File? Why should I? So Jack Warn­er can de­ter­mine if I am a suit­able can­di­date," he said. Asked if he was no longer in the pol­i­tics, Pan­day replied: "I would not say so. I will be around. I will be do­ing my du­ty to the best of my abil­i­ty."

Pan­day told the Guardian that he might go up as an in­de­pen­dent can­di­date, but had not made up his mind as yet. Pan­day said he had a prob­lem with Austin "Jack" Warn­er, Ch­agua­nas West MP, screen­ing him. "Am I go­ing to be screened by Jack Warn­er? That's my prob­lem. Jack Warn­er was not there when the par­ty was formed.

"I have a se­ri­ous prob­lem be­ing screened by Jack Warn­er as be­ing fit (to con­test the seat), and I don't think I should sub­ject my­self to that kind of hu­mil­i­a­tion."