Po­lit­i­cal leader of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is ad­dress­ing the par­ty’s dif­fer­ences in­ter­nal­ly. 

Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly, Rush­ton Paray, Rod­ney Charles and Ani­ta Haynes-Al­leyne have pub­licly voiced their con­cerns about the cur­rent state of the UNC and its fu­ture un­der the lead­er­ship of Per­sad-Bisses­sar. They have al­so called for in­ter­nal elec­tions ahead of the 2025 gen­er­al elec­tions if the par­ty wants a sol­id chance at beat­ing the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment at the polls. 

When asked at a me­dia brief­ing yes­ter­day about the MPs’ con­cerns, Per­sad-Bisses­sar not­ed that their con­cerns are all part of a “de­mo­c­ra­t­ic” process that al­lows them to ex­press them­selves freely, even when there are vary­ing views. She in­di­cat­ed that the dif­fer­ences are be­ing re­solved in­ter­nal­ly. She added that in­ter­nal squab­bles are noth­ing new to po­lit­i­cal par­ties, even the PNM. 

“If you re­call Karen Nunez-Tesheira took Dr (Kei­th) Row­ley to court for in­ter­nal elec­tions, so it is not the first time par­ties have these things hap­pen­ing and it will not be the last time,” she stat­ed.

In 2022, Nunez-Tesheira, who was a po­lit­i­cal leader can­di­date, sued the PNM over elec­toral changes to the par­ty’s in­ter­nal elec­tion. At the time she was ar­gu­ing that the par­ty’s cen­tral ex­ec­u­tive breached the par­ty’s con­sti­tu­tion by de­cid­ing that the elec­tion should be con­test­ed on three sep­a­rate days over a nine-day pe­ri­od (No­vem­ber 26, 27, and De­cem­ber 4, 2022) in­stead of on one day. The in­junc­tion was sub­se­quent­ly dis­missed, and the elec­tions went on as planned. 

Per­sad-Bisses­sar added, “We al­ways act in ac­cor­dance with the par­ty’s con­sti­tu­tion. We had a NA­TEX meet­ing on Wednes­day and oth­er Par­lia­men­tary cau­cus­es and so on, so the par­ty will deal with the in­ter­nal mat­ters.” 

Mean­while, there was pi­cong in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives about the sit­u­a­tion in the UNC. Ram­bal­ly re­ceived a loud, long Gov­ern­ment desk thump­ing sup­port in the Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day when he rose to present his first ques­tion to Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley. Grin­ning broad­ly, Ram­bal­ly said “I hope MPs on the oth­er side know they were thump­ing for the ar­rival of (UNC’s) Cou­va North MP.”

Dur­ing the sit­ting, Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West MP Stu­art Young said Rod­ney Charles—at odds with UNC’s lead­er­ship al­so—was hold­ing his own press con­fer­ence.

“They could hold 10, 11, 12—any amount!” re­tort­ed Cou­va South MP In­dars­ingh.

At the end of the de­bate on the Con­sti­tu­tion Amend­ment Bill—which re­quired Op­po­si­tion sup­port for pas­sage, all 18 Op­po­si­tion MPs present, in­clud­ing Ram­bal­ly, Charles, Dr Rai Rag­bir and Ani­ta Haynes-Al­leyne—all vot­ed against the bill. Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray was ab­sent. —With re­port­ing by Gail Alexan­der