No one in the Opposition UNC has owned up as any of the three members who did not vote along with their other 22 parliamentary colleagues on Friday in support of the party’s presidential nominee, attorney Israel Khan SC.
This has evoked a barrage of political claims from the PNM that a political coup is taking place within the ranks of the UNC.
The UNC was scheduled to hold its national congress on Sunday at the Couva South Multi-Purpose Hall, Couva from 3 pm but rescheduled it at the last minute. The congress brings together all arms of the UNC and the party’s membership to discuss matters of critical importance to the UNC and national issues as well.
This meeting has now been rescheduled for January 29 at the same venue. No specific reason was given for the rescheduling of the congress.
The Electoral College on Friday voted 48-22 in favour of former Senate president Christine Kangaloo being president-elect to serve as TT’s seventh president.
The college comprises all members of the House of Representatives and Senate, including the Speaker of the House and the Senate President.
The vote for Kanglaoo comprised 39 government members (including Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George and Senate President Nigel De Freitas) and nine independent senators.
The vote from the Opposition in support of Khan was 22, three short of the UNC’s full parliamentary membership in the House and Senate.
The PNM was swift to pounce on this on Saturday.
In a statement, PNM public relations officer Faris Al-Rawi reminded Opposition Leader and UNC political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar of her comment during the Electoral College meeting about history not absolving college members who did not vote for Khan.
“One’s own words are often the most bitter to chew. But slow mastication with reflective pause often leads to better positions whilst gifting cherished silence. Bon appetit madame Persad-Bissessar.”
Al-Rawi advised Persad-Bissessar to “have the support of her own team before requesting the support of the nation as “history will not absolve (her) if (she does) otherwise.”
He reminded Persad-Bissessar that “22 does not equal to 25 (the total number of UNC MPs (19) and senators (six) in the Parliament).”
In a Facebook post, National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds said, “What transpired was nothing short of a bloody coup (in the UNC).”
“It, therefore, appears that three UNC members, found her (Persad-Bissessar’s) nominee (Khan) so unpalatable, so abhorrent, so unacceptable, and so crude, that they deliberately wasted the ballots, making them ‘spoilt.’”
Hinds agreed with Al-Rawi that Khan would have expected all 25 UNC parliamentarians to have voted for him. After Friday’s vote, Khan said he would now drink water and mind his business as he is in pre-retirement mode.
Hinds wondered whether UNC MPs Dr Roodal Moonilal, David Lee, Rudranath Indarsingh and Dinesh Rambally knew anything about the spoilt ballots.
Hinds op
