Kim­ber­ly Mack­han

?The Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) still has a role for its founder, Bas­deo Pan­day, ac­cord­ing to its po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she re­spect­ed Pan­day's de­ci­sion to end his po­lit­i­cal ca­reer as an elect­ed MP ear­li­er in the week. "This is a de­mo­c­ra­t­ic coun­try. Mr Pan­day is en­ti­tled to his ac­tions. His de­ci­sion, as any oth­er UNC per­son, is en­ti­tled," Per­sad-Bisses­sar told mem­bers of the me­dia yes­ter­day morn­ing. She was speak­ing to the me­dia be­fore the UNC's screen­ing com­mit­tee in­ter­viewed her for the UNC's Siparia can­di­da­cy. Per­sad-Bisses­sar was re­spond­ing to Pan­day's fail­ure to file nom­i­na­tion pa­pers to re-con­test his Cou­va North seat for the UNC. He has been the rep­re­sen­ta­tive for that area for more than three decades.

It was re­port­ed that Pan­day was un­will­ing to re-con­test his seat for the UNC be­cause UNC chair­man Jack Warn­er would be among those screen­ing him. Pan­day has shared an es­tranged re­la­tion­ship with Warn­er, as well as with Per­sad-Bisses­sar. Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­feat­ed Pan­day in the UNC in­ter­nal elec­tions ear­li­er in Jan­u­ary to be­come UNC po­lit­i­cal leader. She re­placed Pan­day as Op­po­si­tion Leader af­ter so­lic­it­ing a ma­jor­i­ty sup­port from UNC MPs in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she could not force Pan­day to re­solve his is­sues with her and move for­ward with the UNC un­der her lead­er­ship. She said: "I have tried. Mr Pan­day says he will not speak with me. Pub­li­cal­ly, that is what I heard. I did try. He is a founder of the par­ty. We have a tremen­dous amount of re­spect for Mr Pan­day and I re­spect his de­ci­sion." Per­sad-Bisses­sar stressed there re­mained a role for Pan­day in the UNC. She said: "That role can on­ly be with his con­sent. You can­not force peo­ple to do things they have no de­sire so to do."