Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la MP Dr Rai Rag­bir says he is hap­py to hear that screen­ing in the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) is fi­nal­ly tak­ing place. How­ev­er, he is con­cerned at the lack of in­for­ma­tion, and he fears that the UNC is con­duct­ing its af­fairs in a “hap­haz­ard and un­pro­fes­sion­al man­ner.”

Rag­bir made this state­ment yes­ter­day, fol­low­ing UNC Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s de­ci­sion to break the par­ty’s si­lence on screen­ing on Mon­day.

The UNC re­ceived a num­ber of nom­i­na­tions in April—in­clud­ing from its in­cum­bent MPs—but in-per­son screen­ing has not been done. Na­pari­ma MP Rod­ney Charles, who is re­tir­ing af­ter the next gen­er­al elec­tion, did not file a nom­i­na­tion. UNC sen­a­tor Jayan­ti Lutch­me­di­al filed nom­i­na­tions for Na­pari­ma and San Fer­nan­do West.

On Mon­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar, in at­tack­ing is­sues con­cern­ing the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), said the UNC was fo­cused on the gen­er­al elec­tion.

“Our screen­ing process is well on its way, re-vet­ting our com­pre­hen­sive nom­i­na­tion forms,” she said.

“The in-per­son in­ter­views are just a mi­nor part of the screen­ing process where we clear up any in­con­sis­ten­cies from the nom­i­na­tion forms. Fol­low­ing this, nom­i­na­tions may be re­opened for any seats not filled. Na­tex can al­so re­open nom­i­na­tions if need­ed.” 

Rag­bir is among the five es­tranged MPs in the UNC who sup­port­ed UNC Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray’s Unit­ed Pa­tri­ots slate against Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s slate in the UNC’s June in­ter­nal elec­tion. Rag­bir and three oth­er MPs in the group filed nom­i­na­tions in April.

Rag­bir said yes­ter­day of Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s com­ments on screen­ing, “I’m glad to hear that screen­ing is fi­nal­ly tak­ing place. The UNC held nom­i­na­tions ear­li­er this year, but there has been lit­tle in­for­ma­tion since re­gard­ing the process.”

“With about six or sev­en months left be­fore the gen­er­al elec­tion, it’s cru­cial for the UNC to pre­pare ef­fec­tive­ly. I am deeply con­cerned that the par­ty is not learn­ing from its past mis­takes and is con­duct­ing its af­fairs in a hap­haz­ard and un­pro­fes­sion­al man­ner. This lack of or­gan­i­sa­tion could hin­der our abil­i­ty to con­test the elec­tion prop­er­ly,” Rag­bir added.

Paray said, “I’m not aware of any screen­ing that is go­ing on; I haven’t been in­vit­ed to at­tend any. I did sub­mit my nom­i­na­tion form with all the rel­e­vant re­quire­ments, so I ex­pect my call soon.”

For­mer Barataria-San Juan MP Dr Fuad Khan said if nom­i­na­tions were re­opened for that seat, he would sub­mit a nom­i­na­tion.

“And if it’s not re­opened, I’ll just as­sist in any way I can. Barataria-San Juan MP Sad­dam Ho­sein knows I’ll help him—we’ve al­ways had that kind of re­la­tion­ship.”

On whether the PNM’s in­ter­nal con­flicts—in­clud­ing be­tween the lead­er­ship and ex-min­is­ter Robert Le Hunte, ex­ec­u­tive mem­ber Jen­nifer Bap­tiste Primus and cer­tain oth­er ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers—would as­sist the UNC to win elec­tions, Khan said, “It would de­pend on if mem­bers of the pub­lic are hurt­ing enough to choose a dif­fer­ent gov­ern­ment.

“In T&T, gov­ern­ments are usu­al­ly vot­ed out, not vot­ed in.”