Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

For­mer Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray, once la­belled a dis­si­dent with­in the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), has ex­pressed full sup­port for Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar fol­low­ing her un­op­posed re-elec­tion as Po­lit­i­cal Leader of the par­ty on Sun­day.

Paray, who led the Unit­ed Pa­tri­ots slate and mount­ed a chal­lenge for the post of deputy po­lit­i­cal leader dur­ing the UNC’s 2024 in­ter­nal elec­tions, said the lat­est out­come sig­nals a clear man­date that should be re­spect­ed by all par­ty mem­bers.

In a state­ment to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Paray ac­knowl­edged Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s con­tin­ued lead­er­ship, stat­ing, “Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar has been giv­en an un­ques­tion­able man­date to lead this coun­try for the next five years, with no chal­lengers in the lead­er­ship elec­tion. That de­ci­sion must be re­spect­ed.”

He al­so urged uni­ty and fo­cus with­in the par­ty ranks.

“At this stage, our par­ty must stand unit­ed and avoid any dis­trac­tions. The task ahead is clear —eco­nom­ic reengi­neer­ing—and every mem­ber has a du­ty to con­tribute ful­ly,” he added.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar was of­fi­cial­ly de­clared re-elect­ed on Sun­day —nom­i­na­tion day for the UNC’s lead­er­ship post—ef­fec­tive­ly end­ing the par­ty’s in­ter­nal elec­toral process be­fore bal­lots were even print­ed for the Au­gust 17 poll.

Scores of UNC sup­port­ers gath­ered at the par­ty’s Mulchan Seuchan Road, Ch­agua­nas head­quar­ters to wit­ness the mo­ment.

Yes­ter­day, po­lit­i­cal an­a­lysts Dr Shane Mo­hammed and Dr Win­ford James said that the un­op­posed re-elec­tion of Per­sad-Bisses­sar sent a strong sig­nal of sta­bil­i­ty with­in the par­ty and could serve as a plat­form for strength­en­ing its na­tion­al ap­peal.

Mo­hammed main­tained that the ab­sence of a chal­lenge is not a sign of weak­ness in de­mo­c­ra­t­ic process­es, but rather a show of co­he­sion at a crit­i­cal time for the UNC.

“The par­ty has gone through its ups and downs and Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­mained high­ly favourable to so many peo­ple, and I be­lieve it would have been fool­ish, er­rat­ic, ir­ra­tional to chal­lenge a Prime Min­is­ter who on­ly 90 days ago achieved a po­lit­i­cal come­back.”

While James stressed that suc­ces­sion plan­ning is nec­es­sary, he said Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s lead­er­ship cur­rent­ly re­mains cen­tral to the par­ty.

“She clear­ly is in the as­cen­den­cy as we speak. I can’t use health as an is­sue be­cause there are peo­ple liv­ing in­to their 80s and 90s. Once she re­mains healthy and does those things to put her in a favourable light, she should do well.”

For­mer leader of gov­ern­ment busi­ness in the Sen­ate dur­ing Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s pre­vi­ous tenure as Prime Min­is­ter, Sub­has Pan­day, en­dorsed her re-elec­tion.

“She was right in that you can­not op­er­ate in the Par­lia­ment with one per­son be­ing the leader of the mem­bers of the Par­lia­ment and an­oth­er per­son be­ing the leader of the par­ty. There will be a di­choto­my be­tween par­ty leader and leader of the House and as such it was a ne­ces­si­ty for her to go back to hold the po­si­tion.”

He said any move to chal­lenge Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s lead­er­ship would have on­ly stirred “con­fu­sion”.