Moontown

by Ria Taitt Political Editor

POLITICal wine: Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner shows off his dancing skills during Denyse Plummer’s performance at “The People’s Party” hosted by the United National Congress at Rienzi Complex, Couva, on Saturday night. -Photo: TREVOR HACKETT

Political power continues to slip away from Basdeo Panday, the Couva North MP and Opposition Leader.

Sources said yesterday that the Couva North constituency executive is now considering mass resignation to demonstrate its lack of support for some of the positions taken by their parliamentary representative, since his massive defeat at the hands of Kamla Persad-Bissessar for the post of Political Leader.

Only last week, Panday stormed out of a parliamentary caucus after he failed to get the caucus to agree to a probe into the discovery of membership cards at the party’s Rienzi Complex headquarters. Panday has also taken the position that he is not resigning as Opposition Leader, even in the face of the strong mandate given to Persad-Bissessar by the party’s membership.

Later today, the Couva North and South Executives meet with the UNC Executive at the Chandernagore Presbyterian School at 6 p.m. The meeting is the first in the party’s ’Meet the Constituents Tour’ campaign, which the new leadership has initiated.

On Saturday night at the party’s celebratory fete, titled ’The People’s Party’, at Rienzi Complex, Couva, Persad-Bissessar, hours after being discharged from the St Clair Medical Centre, where she received treatment for a fractured left shoulder, thanked her supporters for their support.

She further told supporters that her main initiative now would be to ensure that the Patrick Manning-led PNM is removed from Government.

Persad-Bissessar was rushed to the hospital in immense pain just after 4 p.m. on Friday, after she fell in the Parliament chamber. She was discharged on Saturday and turned up at the fete with her arm in a sling, which she will have to wear while she recovers from the injury. Sources said yesterday persad-Bissessar can either allow the injury to heal normally or undergo surgery.

On a related matter, sources said yesterday that it is noteworthy that the Public Services Association approached Persad-Bissessar and not Panday, to discuss its concerns about the Trinidad and Tobago Revenue Authority bill, and to raise the issue of the temporary appointment of a PSA official to the Senate for the purpose of ventilating the association’s concerns about the bill in that House. (See Page 4)

It is likely that the association would have one of its officials in the Senate by the time the bill is debated. But that can only happen if Persad-Bissessar is appointed Opposition Leader by the time the bill is debated in the Senate - which is the Tuesday after Carnival. By then, sources say, Persad-Bissessar would have taken over the reins as Opposition Leader, having secured the support of the majority of elected MPs and would be in a position to nominate senators. Today, Persad-Bissessar meets the PSA Executive at its headquarters. (Trinidad Express)