Volney: UNC unattractive, unelectable

UPDATED:

Former St Joseph MP in the People’s Partnership administration Herbert Volney has expressed his views on the United National Congress (UNC) leadership race, saying the party is unattractive and unelectable.

He attributed this, yesterday, to the party’s leader, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, whom he accused of fostering a divide between party supporters.

The vocal Volney contested the 2010 general election on a UNC ticket before they went on to form the People’s Partnership coalition government with three other political parties.

He took to Facebook yesterday to criticise Persad-Bissessar and the party’s internal election process.

“Now, she has done it again. Rather than encourage unity within the UNC she has fostered schism between the racialist south, and the East/West Corridor without which she has condemned the UNC to the Opposition benches in Parliament,” Volney said.

In the post, in which he described himself as the co-ordinator of the We The People Movement, Volney lauded the efforts of former St Augustine MP Vasant Bharath who, on Wednesday, pulled out of the UNC leadership race, citing an unfair advantage by the party’s leader in the election process.

Bharath said Persad-Bissessar had access to the party’s machinery, membership and voters’ lists. Volney said he was saddened by the turn of events.

“After manipulating a premature and unconstitutional election that has placed her at the head of her party for the next general election, Kamla Persad-Bissessar has brought a great joy to Balisier House,” the former justice minister also said.

He said since he was fired in 2012, he had seen the party lose every election and opined that the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) could look forward to an increase in its tally of seats to 24 with the impending retirement of Barataria/San Juan MP Fuad Khan.

The PNM has 23 of the 41 seats in Parliament.

With Bharath out of the UNC leadership race, Persad-Bissessar’s only opposition is Christine Newallo-Hosein.