Kamla confident

THE leadership of the Opposition UNC hung in the balance on Sunday night as neither incumbent leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar nor her challenger Vasant Bharath was declared winner of the party’s internal elections.

But early signs showed Persad-Bissessar was ahead in the race to retain the UNC’s leadership.

Up to press time, the UNC’s internal elections committee did not announce Persad-Bissessar re-elected as leader or if the elections had gone in Bharath’s favour.

Early trends suggested Persad-Bissessar and her Team Star were leading Bharath and his Team Lotus. Results from Tobago East and Tobago West were the first to be declared, with Persad-Bissessar defeating Bharath 13 to one. A total of 50 ballots were cast in those constituencies. Other members of Persad-Bissessar’s slate won the majority of votes for their posts too.

Additional information showed Persad-Bissessar getting 116, 67 and 54 votes in Diego Martin North/East, Diego Martin West and Diego Martin Central respectively. In the same constituencies, Bharath got 19, eight and two votes respectively. Other members of Persad-Bissessar’s Star Team also tallied more votes than Bharath’s Lotus Team.

Earlier in the day, after voting at Parvati Girls High School, Debe, Persad-Bissessar was confident of victory. “With every election, you don’t celebrate until after the last vote is counted. So I’ll wait until this evening or later tonight,” she told reporters. Persad-Bissessar said she was satisfied with the overall conduct of the elections.

“Thus far, I have had a few complaints but generally it’s going smoothly, flowing steadily, slowly.”

As with the August 10 general election, Persad-Bissessar said it was possible the voter turnout may be lower than expected because of covid19. There are approximately 114,000 people eligible to vote in the UNC elections.

She claimed there were complaints from some polling stations that Bharath’s Team Lotus has been “overtly campaigning on the compounds, in the stations, along the road with mics on cars.” But Persad-Bissessar added, “I don’t think it will do them much good, but they continue to campaign, which is clearly, not expected on an election day.”

Persad-Bissessar was concerned about some UNC members bringing their children with them to vote, in the wake of reports on Saturday that three children had been hospitalised after contracting covid19.

“It’s unfortunate if that is happening because parents need to be more responsible.”

While adults’ enthusiasm to vote may have resulted in their bringing their children to the polling station, Persad-Bissessar said, “We (UNC) have never encouraged children to come out for elections."

Asked how the party would heal after an intense campaign herself and Bharath, Persad-Bissessar replied, “God is always great. I put God in front. I walk behind.”

Noting there were unkind statements issued on social media during the campaign, Persad-Bissessar said, “Politics is a civilised form of war and I guess that’s what some people see it as.”

UNC activist Devant Maharaj posted claims on social media during the day that UNC MPs Vandana Mohit and Michelle Benjamin were put out of polling stations in their respective Chaguanas East and Moruga/Tableland constituencies. Mohit rejected Maharaj’s claims.

He also claimed Opposition Senator Wade Mark refused to leave a polling station. In a post on Facebook, former Tabaquite MP Dr Surujrattan Rambachan claimed fewer than half of the registered UNC members voted and asked what that implied about the state of the party.

There were also reports of missing keys for ballot boxes in Naparima.

Other members of Persad-Bissessar’s slate who contested the elections were: Jearlean John (deputy political leader); Dr Lackram Bodoe (deputy political leader); David Lee (deputy political leader); Dave Tancoo (chairman); Khadijah Ameen (vice-chairman); Monifa Russell Andrews (research officer); Sean Sobers (policy and strategy officer); William Archie ( treasurer); Neil Gosine (north east regional representative); Shanty Boodram (south regional representative); Imam Rasheed Karim (central regional representative); Eli Zakour (north west regional representative); Bheemal Ramlogan (Tobago regional representative); Nicholas Morris (international relations officer); Don Sylvester (election officer); Clifton De Coteau (education officer); and Ravi Ratiram (party organiser)

The members of Bharath’s slate were: Larry Lalla (chairman); Ramona Ramdial (deputy political leader; Dr Stephen Ramroop (deputy political leader); Joe Pires (deputy political leader); Barrington “Skippy” Thomas (Tobago co-ordinator); Jason Peru (west co-ordinator); Prakash Williams (party organiser); Anil Ramjit  (south co-ordinator); Nazima Ali Knox (research officer); Andrew Mungal  (central co-ordinator); Chunilal Bedassie  (policy & strategy officer); Winston Siriram (treasurer); Dr Ramchand Rampersad (education officer); Kamini Ramraj (elections officer); Candice Mohan (northeast co-ordinator); Hershael Ramesar  (vice chairman); and Joey Harrynanan (international affairs officer).