De­spite bow­ing out as a Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) can­di­date for the De­cem­ber 2 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tion, Glen Ram will not be tossed aside but will play an in­te­gral role in bring­ing home vic­to­ry of the San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion for the Op­po­si­tion par­ty.

Yes­ter­day, Ram the chair­man of the Ma­yaro/Rio Claro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, with­drew his can­di­da­cy for the elec­toral dis­trict of Biche/Charu­ma af­ter serv­ing his burgess­es for 20 years.

In May, Ram was ar­rest­ed by the An­ti-Cor­rup­tion In­ves­ti­ga­tion Bu­reau on cor­rup­tion charges in re­la­tion to al­leged­ly re­ceiv­ing a bribe val­ued $1500.

At that time, Ram re­fused to step down as chair­man be­cause he was con­fi­dent he would be vin­di­cat­ed.

Yes­ter­day, UNC Deputy leader David Lee dis­missed re­ports that Ram was ad­vised by the par­ty’s ex­ec­u­tive to step down as a can­di­date be­cause of his pend­ing bribery charges.

“Mr Ram de­clined to go­ing back up and sub­mit­ted his res­ig­na­tion let­ter to the UNC. What he has agreed is to clear his name. As you know, he is be­fore the court. When­ev­er there is a chance for him to re­turn to pol­i­tics he would re­turn,”Lee said.

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, Ram ex­pressed sim­i­lar sen­ti­ments that he want­ed his name cleared and opt­ed to bow out of the elec­tion race.

Last week, UNC coun­cil­lor Khubal Pal­too crossed the floor to the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment while Mon Re­pos/Navet coun­cil­lor Clint Davis with­drew from the elec­tions.

Lee said Ram was the lone can­di­date who filed nom­i­na­tion pa­pers for that elec­toral dis­trict.

“So we did not screen his seat.”

How­ev­er, Ram told Guardian Me­dia re­peat­ed­ly that he had not been screened.

In light of Ram’s with­draw­al, Lee said at “least five or six in­di­vid­u­als” have since come for­ward to file nom­i­na­tion pa­pers.

“So we will be screen­ing that par­tic­u­lar seat over the week­end based on peo­ple who have sub­mit­ted their pa­pers.”

Lee said mem­bers of Ram’s team had of­fered to file their nom­i­na­tion pa­pers for the elec­toral dis­trict.

If Ram’s name is cleared will the UNC se­lect him as a 2020 gen­er­al elec­tion can­di­date?

Lee said this was pre­ma­ture to say.

“It is up to Glen Ram to say if he wants to con­tin­ue with his po­lit­i­cal life. I don’t know what is his in­ten­tion. Any­one can file nom­i­na­tion for any of the 41 seats.”

Lee said Ram al­so has an in­te­gral role to play in Cu­mu­to/Tamana and oth­er ar­eas in the up­com­ing elec­tion.

“Mr Ram has a lot of work to do. He is still a mem­ber of the par­ty. He is a force to reck­on with in as­sist­ing the par­ty in as­sur­ing that we get vic­to­ry in the San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion. We have a lot of work to do. Mr Ram has giv­en the un­der­tak­ing to the ex­ec­u­tive, man­age­ment and hi­er­ar­chy that he has a ma­jor role to play who­ev­er is cho­sen as the can­di­da­cy for Biche /Charu­ma.”

Lee ap­plaud­ed Ram for al­low­ing the par­ty to breathe with­out any con­fu­sion or bac­cha­nal.

Ram said his im­promp­tu de­ci­sion was based on a”per­son­al choice” as a re­sult of the on­go­ing court mat­ter.

“It all came about be­ing of the mat­ter I have be­fore the courts. I want the courts to clear my name hence the rea­son I would not be con­sid­er­ing my­self to run for the up­com­ing elec­tions.”

Ques­tioned why he re­fused to step down af­ter the charges were laid, Ram said “I had projects, I had some stuff that need­ed to be com­plet­ed un­der my tenure.”

Weigh­ing in on the is­sue, po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath said Ram’s de­ci­sion would not have im­pli­ca­tions for the UNC.

Ra­goonath said the elec­tion cam­paign is yet to pick up speed and nom­i­na­tion day is No­vem­ber 11.

This, he said would give the UNC suf­fi­cient time to find a re­place­ment can­di­date.

“Ef­fec­tive­ly it would not have an im­pact at this time.”

Po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar will present her lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tion slate next Sun­day.