PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Friday’s opposition legislator called on the main opposition United National Congress (UNC) to hold internal elections when they are due, claiming that efforts are underway to prevent the event.
At a news conference, Rushton Paray, the parliamentary representative for Mayaro on the island’s south coast, told reporters that the current executive headed by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad Bissessar appears to be avoiding what is proper.
“We are demanding today that our party’s leadership respect the voice of our members, and that voice is echoed through our constitutionally due internal elections. All of us in the UNC have always believed that elections must be called when they are due.
“So the UNC’s internal elections must be called when they are due in June,” he said, thanking the “brave UNC family who have joined me today as we stand firm and united in our convictions.
“Before I came here today, I got a call from a colleague. He said to me, “Rushton, what you are doing is committing political suicide.” I told him that may very well be the case. After today, I may be an outcast of our party. But the other option is that I remain silent.”
At the last UNC internal elections, held on June 26, 2022, Persad Bissessar’s “Star Team” ran unopposed except for three executive positions.
Official results were released on 1 July 2022, with Persad Bissessar’s team winning with 94.7 percent of the votes, or 11,554.
Paray told reporters that recently, when the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) attempted to defer the holding of the local government election, the UNC’s legal intervention allowed voters to cast their ballots.
“Sadly, it pains me to say that severe institutional integrity issues appear even within our beloved party. We are all united in a common cause—that is, we are demanding that our party’s leadership respect the voice of our members.
“Today, we are all making this public demand because we have a grave concern that the executive is attempting to devalue the UNC’s internal elections by suggesting they are unnecessary or even needed.”
Paray said, “Our leadership is pushing a bogus narrative that says we cannot have our internal elections because there is a general election soon. That is not acceptable”, and that the leadership’s talk of a general election is simply a ruse intended to suppress the voice of the membership.
“I want to remind the leadership of our party that the most important people in the UNC are not the political leaders, nor are they the members of Parliament or even Senators. The most important people in the UNC are the ordinary members…”
Paray warned that failure to hold the internal elections as scheduled would “mean that the leadership of our party will continue to fail the thousands of members by denying them their right to have their voices heard.
“If these UNC internal elections are not held, our party’s leadership will continue to be unprepared, rudderless, and weak. The UNC will be destined to lose a third successive general election.”
There has so far been no response from the opposition party to the statements made by Paray at the news conference.
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