Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) MP Dr Rai Rag­bir (Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la) says it’s time not on­ly for a Na­tion­al Ex­ec­u­tive (Na­tex) elec­tion, but al­so a lead­er­ship elec­tion, since there are calls for this from var­i­ous con­stituen­cies—not just Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray’s call for a Na­tex poll.

But UNC MP Kadi­jah Ameen has dis­missed Paray’s call for a Na­tex elec­tion.

Both UNC MPs spoke yes­ter­day at op­po­site ends on the is­sue con­cern­ing Paray—along with oth­er mixed views from oth­er par­ty of­fi­cials.

At a me­dia con­fer­ence yes­ter­day, Paray made his call for Na­tex polls and re­ceived loud ap­plause from the au­di­ence, which in­clud­ed cer­tain coun­cil­lors from Siparia, Ch­agua­nas and Cou­va.

Rag­bir said he sup­ports Paray’s call for Na­tex elec­tions by June when it’s con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly due.

Rag­bir said, “When the Prime Min­is­ter calls gen­er­al elec­tions, we’ll want a stronger par­ty to have a stronger T&T and we could look at a re­al­is­tic goal of re­turn­ing to gov­ern­ment af­ter such a long time spent in Op­po­si­tion.

“It won’t mash up the par­ty to have elec­tions, as there are so many na­tion­al is­sues and peo­ple are call­ing for change for some­one to lead them out of this bondage and want change … yes on Na­tex, and at lead­er­ship lev­el too.”

Rag­bir said he felt there are ex­cel­lent peo­ple in UNC’s Na­tex but there’s al­so a wide mem­ber­ship which is grow­ing quick­ly, “with the sense of help­less­ness and hope­less­ness in T&T”.

“Peo­ple want a change to re­move the PNM and put UNC back in­to gov­ern­ment, es­pe­cial­ly as young peo­ple can’t get jobs.”

Rag­bir added that the grow­ing calls for change not on­ly at Na­tex but at the lead­er­ship lev­el were not on­ly from his con­stituen­cy but oth­ers. He said he speaks to oth­er col­leagues and goes to ar­eas, in­clud­ing Ch­agua­nas West and Na­pari­ma, “and it’s the same thing in these ar­eas.”

Say­ing the lead­er­ship needs to change, Rag­bir said, “At the end of the day, every­body has their time and we need to lis­ten to the mem­bers’ voic­es and this is what they’re say­ing and we’ll heed that call.

“If they de­cide to keep the cur­rent Na­tex and present po­lit­i­cal leader, we’ll re­spect that re­gard­less of what will hap­pen to us but if they sug­gest a change of lead­er­ship and Na­tex and change them, we’ll abide by that al­so.”

Rag­bir said he’ll as­cer­tain mem­bers’ views by hav­ing meet­ings, as he’s been do­ing, in­clud­ing via tech­no­log­i­cal means.

But his col­league Ameen said, “There’s so much hard­ship in T&T—crime, food prices, job­less­ness, etc; my fo­cus is on the gen­er­al elec­tions to legal­ly re­move this in­com­pe­tent Gov­ern­ment. How many peo­ple are in­flu­enced to vote based on who’s on a par­ty Na­tex? The par­ty’s con­sti­tu­tion will take care of that. Peo­ple care about the state of the coun­try.

“Who will be the can­di­dates like­ly to form the next gov­ern­ment, our poli­cies to ease hard­ships and who’ll be the next Prime Min­is­ter. Na­tex doesn’t elect can­di­dates, cre­ate man­i­festo, poli­cies nor do they de­ter­mine cam­paign strate­gies. There are com­mit­tees for these things that are al­ready in place.”

She added, “What the Na­tex has to con­sid­er is if the UNC should halt the nom­i­na­tion process which is well un­der­way, halt screen­ing and halt gen­er­al elec­tions prepa­ra­tions, to con­duct an in­ter­nal elec­tion for the Na­tex when the lead­er­ship isn’t even up for grabs. Per­haps that’s what some peo­ple would like to hap­pen. But as it per­tains to Na­tex elec­tions, I’ll abide by the de­ci­sions in ac­cor­dance with UNC’s con­sti­tu­tion ...”

San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Ken­wyn Phillips, who said all coun­cil­lors, were be­hind UNC leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, added, “Let me make it clear: the par­ty has a con­sti­tu­tion. When I sup­port­ed Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar in the last Na­tex elec­tion, I placed trust and sup­port in her, the Na­tex and their de­ci­sions un­til the next in­ter­nal poll. I still sup­port her and what­ev­er de­ci­sions Na­tex takes. I know they have the best in­ter­est of mem­bers, par­ty and coun­try at heart.”

He added, “Mr Paray should un­der­stand the par­ty has a con­sti­tu­tion and in­stead of fight­ing the par­ty, which isn’t the en­e­my, the re­al is­sue is fight­ing the PNM. I be­lieve the leader will do what’s nec­es­sary to en­sure we emerge vic­to­ri­ous in gen­er­al elec­tions and if the de­ci­sion is to post­pone the Na­tex elec­tion, that will be en­shrined in the con­sti­tu­tion. Mr Paray need to ‘pat down’, stop fight­ing with the leader and be­lieve she’ll do every­thing in every­one’s best in­ter­est.”

Ca­roni Cen­tral MP Arnold Ram said he’s guid­ed by the par­ty’s con­sti­tu­tion, which guides the Na­tex.

“Peo­ple can call for this or that, Na­tex will make de­ci­sions guid­ed by the con­sti­tu­tion,” Ram said.