Kamla whips Panday in UNC political leadership polls
DATELINE :Sunday, January 24
Political heavyweight Basdeo Panday,76, sent packing into retirement by Siparia grandmother. A new era dawns for Trinidad and Tobago politics.
Shortly after 9p.m, Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj conceded defeat and pledged to work with Kamla Persad-Bissessar who seems headed for a landslide victory in today’s historic United National Congress (UNC) internal elections.
Around 10:15 tonight, the 57-year-old grandmother, who is parliamentary representative for Siparia, thought it safe to make a victory speech to hundreds of jubilant supporters at her constituency office. She had whipped both Ramesh and incumbent Basdeo Panday and made a fool of NACTA pollster Visnu Bisram who saw Panday winning comfortably.
The likeable lawyer, who had to endure a vicious campaign from Panday, who claimed she had a drinking problem and who, also uncharitably, tried to portray her as weak and unsuitable for leadership, was very gracious in victory thanking Panday for his contribution to the party but, first, praising God and assuring her opponents that she was prepared to embrace them as she rebuilt the party.
She said “no one would be left out’ and that the victory was not accomplished by her.
“Kamla did not do it, you did it. Your persistence, your perseverance, your sacrifice made it possible….”
Early returns showed a thumping for Panday, the man regarded as a virtual God in the UNC heart land. For instance, in one polling station in Chaguanas West , Kamla got 143 votes and Panday, a mere 12.
The 76-year-old warrior, who founded the UNC in 1989 after breaking with the ANR Robinson administration, stayed away from the party’s Rienzi Complex headquarters( which is situated in his Couva North constituency) where there happened to be only a handful of party members.
When contacted, Panday seemed subdued and said he would not be going there but did not say why.
He said that he would always “follow the democratic principles” if he is defeated, but, at the same time, he appeared to contradict himself by saying “I will not concede defeat”.
Kamla’s victory is a watershed in local politics in that she is the first woman elected as political leader of a major party.
She is a Spiritual Baptist and a Hindu and acted as Prime Minister in the UNC administration in the late 1990s-the first woman to do so- and was Minister of Education and also Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs and has represented Siparia since 1995.
Party financier Austin Jack Warner, the Chaguanas West MP, was heading for victory as party chairman, thereby, replacing Panday. Warner defeated St Augustine MP Vasant Bharath who contested the post.
Some 35,000 members were registered to vote but the elections was plagued with problems with many people being unable to cast their vote.
Panday was verbally abused in the full glare of television stations in Chaguanas and he blamed the hiccups on a female worker who went on vacation when she should be assisting in the preparations for the polls.
Panday’s defeat marks the end of a colourful 44-year career in local politics in which he managed to become Prime Minister from 1995 to 2001.
His defeat means that he may be removed this week from his position as Parliamentary Opposition Leader by President Max Richards. When this happens, there may a new slate of senators on the Opposition bench.