Senior Reporter
andrea.perez-sobers@guardian.co.tt
The United Patriots has graciously accepted defeat and will not be challenging the results of the UNC internal elections. Instead, they are willing to work with the newly elected national executive.
At a news conference yesterday, the leader of the United Patriots slate, Rushton Paray, said despite the numerous irregularities encountered, the team accepted the results and the will of the membership of the party. He made it clear that members of his slate who had questioned the leadership of Kamla Persad-Bissessar would remain loyal to the party.
There had been concerns that defeat could lead to their exodus from the main opposition party.
“The Members of Parliament who contested the election on our slate, as well as the MP for Chaguanas West and the MP for Naparima, commit to continuing to hold the failed and incompetent PNM government to account,” he said.
However, Paray did question the voter turnout after the preliminary results showed that approximately 17,000 UNC members cast their votes on Saturday.
“If you said that there are 17,000 people that came out to vote, which is a high voter turnout, what about the other 100,000 voters that did not see the importance of coming out and casting their vote?” he asked.
Paray was asked if the resounding victory for Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s Star Team put to rest the belief that UNC members want a change in leadership.
He replied: “Well, if 100,000 people that sit on our membership list did not come out to vote I don’t think that’s a validation of anything.”
Paray was also asked if he would contest the position of political leader next year.
“Anything can happen. Listen, the party constitution allows any member who feels they are well-tooled and well-oiled to offer themselves for national service at the highest level, the party gives you that opportunity, and any member is free to do so,” he said.
Before midnight on Saturday, political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar declared victory for the Star slate in an announcement from her Siparia constituency.
Persad-Bissessar, who had publicly endorsed the candidates of the Star Team, told party supports assembled at her constituency office that it was the worst internal elections she had experienced as political leader.
“We faced a bruising and battering campaign, but it was a campaign that was rooted in dishonesty. You remember the others came out and told you that we were not going to hold these elections so from day one the other team started with dishonesty,” she said.
“I have gone through so many campaigns, as a leader myself, six internal elections I have caused to be held in the party and this has been the worst.”