Persad-Bissessar, the first woman to lead a major political party in Trinidad and Tobago, becomes the new hope of the UNC rank and file for achieving opposition unity and for getting into government.
The results of the UNC internal elections on Sunday saw a political earthquake that shattered the structure of the UNC, changing its entire face. Persad-Bissessar’s slate made a clean sweep, wiping out veterans like longstanding Senate Leader and Deputy Political Leader Wade Mark and fellow candidates, MP Roodal Moonilal and Hamza Rafeeq. They have been replaced by neophytes like Lyndira Oudit and Colin Partap, along with Suruj Rambachan and Rupert Griffith.
“This is a small step for the UNC, but a giant step for the nation,” an effervescent Persad-Bissessar said last night as she addressed supporters at his Siparia constituency office. She reached out to her “worthy opponents”, saying that it was time for the UNC family to unite and to work to remove the Manning regime and put back a UNC government into office.
Meanwhile a deflated-sounding Panday who stayed at home, indicated that he was not yet ready to concede, that he wouldn’t be going to the party’s Rienzi Complex headquarters last night and wondered why he should. “I’m having fun… answering my e-mails,” he said, when asked what he was doing for the evening. The members of the Panday slate could not be contacted.
The question of whether Panday would continue as opposition leader in the face of this comprehensive defeat arises. His final humiliation would be if those other MPs in the House of Representa-tives, with an eye to the future, also turn their backs on him and shift their allegiance to Persad-Bissessar, making her opposition leader.
Joining Persad-Bissessar in the leadership rung is Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner who has won the chairmanship, also by a landslide. The triumph of Warner, who was essentially on his own, attests to his personal strength within the party.
The first candidate to concede was Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj whose strategy of aligning himself to Panday did not work.
He trailed badly in the political leadership race, receiving a miniscule proportion of the votes cast.
Maharaj congratulated Persad-Bissessar, stating that the membership had spoken “very loudly. Democracy requires us to accept the results. I wish the new leader and new executive all the best for the future,” he said.
Warner, in a victory speech at his constituency office, echoed Persad-Bissessar’s statements that the party begins the process of “rebuilding and uniting” and regaining the government of Trinidad and Tobago. Warner reached out to Panday and thanked him, saying that his earlier work had made the prospect of the UNC gaining the government possible.
Persad-Bissessar’s victory signals that the era of maximum, unchallenged and unchallengeable leadership has come to a catastrophic end in one of the two major parties. It means that Panday will not, as former PNM leader Eric Williams did, die with his boots on.
