Akash Sama­roo

Con­tro­ver­sy is once again brew­ing from with­in the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress, this time over the par­ty’s per­ceived fail­ure to com­mence its screen­ing process of po­ten­tial can­di­dates for the next gen­er­al elec­tion. How­ev­er, mem­bers of the par­ty’s hi­er­ar­chy, in­clud­ing its po­lit­i­cal leader, said they would not be bul­lied in­to rush­ing the process. Na­pari­ma MP Rod­ney Charles sent a me­dia re­lease yes­ter­day stat­ing that while nom­i­na­tions for these po­si­tions opened in De­cem­ber 2023 and have been closed since April 2024, “The de­lay in pro­gress­ing to can­di­date se­lec­tion is rais­ing se­ri­ous con­cerns.”

Charles, who in­di­cat­ed that he will not be seek­ing re-elec­tion in 2025, added that while the PNM has al­ready se­lect­ed sev­er­al can­di­dates in what he de­scribed as a very trans­par­ent process, “The UNC, by con­trast, and pre­sum­ably in this in­stance, us­es a process en­tire­ly dom­i­nat­ed by the po­lit­i­cal leader, shroud­ed in se­cre­cy and fi­nalised on­ly on the morn­ing of nom­i­na­tion day.”

Charles added, “Our sup­port­ers and the peo­ple of T&T de­serve trans­paren­cy and de­ci­sive ac­tion. For months, we have wait­ed pa­tient­ly, but now is the time to step for­ward with clar­i­ty.” The Na­pari­ma MP said even if Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar wish­es to re­place the so-called dis­si­dent mem­bers with fresh faces, those new can­di­dates will need time to cam­paign, even in safe seats.

This sen­ti­ment was echoed by Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray, who is seek­ing to be re-se­lect­ed for his seat de­spite his fall­out with Per­sad-Bisses­sar dur­ing the par­ty’s in­ter­nal elec­tion. He said, “The PNM has a head start. Their can­di­date for Ma­yaro is al­ready on the ground and ac­tive­ly work­ing. I un­der­stand MP Charles’s con­cern that the in­ter­view stage in our screen­ing process may be run­ning a bit be­hind.”

Paray did not com­ment on Charles’ sug­ges­tion that the po­lit­i­cal leader was dom­i­nat­ing the process but added that the longer the UNC takes to se­lect can­di­dates, the hard­er it will be for new can­di­dates.

“Get­ting an ear­ly start is es­sen­tial to se­cure a win,” he said. Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la MP Dr Rai Rag­bir, who al­so sup­port­ed Paray and his slate in the UNC in­ter­nal elec­tion, al­so sup­port­ed Charles’ call.

“Any process that in­creas­es trans­paren­cy and gives UNC vot­ers a big­ger voice in the par­ty should be wel­comed. I see no rea­son why any­one would ob­ject to that,” he said via What­sApp Mes­sen­ger.

Guardian Me­dia has been try­ing for some time to get the date for the start of screen­ing. Dur­ing one of the UNC’s week­ly news brief­in­gs on No­vem­ber 3, Oropouce West MP Dave Tan­coo told Guardian Me­dia that an an­nounce­ment would come soon.

The fol­low­ing day, the par­ty’s na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive held a meet­ing, but still no date was an­nounced. In late 2023, po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath, in an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, stressed the im­por­tance of elec­tion prepa­ra­tion.

“We’ve seen in the past, even when the UNC knew the elec­tion was to be held, they were caught with their pants down, un­able to find can­di­dates to con­test, the case be­ing in the 2015 gen­er­al elec­tion when the UNC was fight­ing to get can­di­dates to con­test Tu­na­puna, which they got three weeks be­fore the elec­tion,” he said.

But UNC leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said that the process was on­go­ing. She ex­plained that the se­lec­tion of can­di­dates is more than just the in-per­son in­ter­views be­fore the com­mit­tee.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader said via What­sApp Mes­sen­ger, “The nom­i­na­tion book­lets are 23 pages long and are very com­pre­hen­sive. We have al­so held mul­ti­ple meet­ings with con­stituen­cy reps, which is al­so part of the process. The in-per­son in­ter­views are just an­oth­er part of our screen­ing process and re­al­ly are just to clar­i­fy any ques­tions or dis­crep­an­cies that may arise from the in­for­ma­tion sub­mit­ted in the nom­i­na­tion book­lets.” She agreed with Charles that peo­ple de­serve trans­paren­cy. How­ev­er, she boast­ed that the UNC is the on­ly po­lit­i­cal par­ty to hold trans­par­ent and de­mo­c­ra­t­ic in­ter­nal elec­tions.

“The PNM and all third par­ties have not held their in­ter­nal ex­ec­u­tive elec­tions to al­low their mem­bers a voice in elect­ing their ex­ec­u­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tives. In most cas­es, the ex­ec­u­tives of the third par­ties have been hand-picked by the po­lit­i­cal leader with no in­put from their mem­bers,” she added. Go­ing on the of­fen­sive, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said its mem­ber­ship spoke loud and clear in the June 2024 in­ter­nal elec­tions and picked the team they want­ed to lead the par­ty in­to the next elec­tion.

“I ful­ly un­der­stand some per­sons may still be hurt from be­ing re­ject­ed in the UNC in­ter­nal polls, but that is life; there will be ups and downs. I have al­so had dis­ap­point­ments, but I have al­ways put the best in­ter­ests of the UNC first and fore­most,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar did not, how­ev­er, re­veal when they will com­mence the in-per­son in­ter­view part of the screen­ing process.

Mean­while, her deputy lead­ers al­so came to her de­fence. Jear­lean John told Guardian Me­dia that it seems that Charles and oth­ers al­ways have some­thing to com­plain about. Dr Roodal Mooni­lal rub­bished claims that se­lect­ed can­di­dates will be at a dis­ad­van­tage.