10-1 is murder!

Or so Sparrow said.

Yet, despite a 10-1 drubbing by Kamla in the UNC leadership elections, Bas, like Denyse Plummer, 'nah leaving.'

Not yet.

Kamla polled 13, 929 votes to Panday's 1,359 votes - or more than 10 times as many votes as the Silver Fox.

But he made it clear in an interview with the Trinidad Express that he will not be relinquishing the Opposition Leader post gracefully.

The Express article is (perhaps unwittingly) hil-ar-ious.

Every other paragraph starts with "told that" and "asked that" and have Panday stonewalling in the most creative ways possible.

An example:

Yesterday, faced with the enormity of his defeat at the UNC polls and the strength of Persad-Bissessar’s mandate to lead, Panday insisted on playing it by the book-pointing out that he was following the country’s Constitution and the UNC’s constitution. And neither say that the Political Leader has to be Opposition Leader.

Told that there was strong view that it would be difficult for him to continue as Opposition Leader in the face of his comprehensive defeat as Political Leader, Panday said: ’I would have thought that they were two different things. I became Leader of the Opposition because of a national election. Now this is a party election and I think they are two different things. Don’t you?’

Told that there was a view that there was an organic connection between the mandate from the party and the mandate from the general electorate, Panday insisted he was following democratic law.

’I accept the democratic decision of the UNC electorate and I would accept the democratic decisions of the UNC Parliamentarians,’ he said.

Asked whether he did not think he should relieve the MPs from the burden of making a decision about his future as Opposition Leader (by resigning), Panday said: ’No.’

Told that new Chairman Jack Warner said he should do the honourable thing, Panday started saying: ’Jack Warner and honourable should not be used ... Anyway the issue is one (post), is (based on) a party election and the other is the result of a national election.’


Told that while that was the legal position, the issue was whether it would be immoral for him to hold on as Opposition Leader in the face of the strong endorsement for Persad-Bissessar from the party electorate, Panday asked: ’Whose morals are you referring to? Yours or mine?’

And so it goes, on and on. Not that I think we expected any different. Kamla have to hold strong now.

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10-1 is murder!

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It's Kamla!

She finally did it.

Kamla Persad-Bissessar is now the first woman to lead a major political party in Trinidad's history, after winning the leadership of the UNC last night in a landslide.


She came out of the shadows of her former political mentor,  Basdeo Panday and withstood the attacks from her parliamentary colleagues, most of whom sided with party founder Panday, to prevail as the people's choice.

Not only that, but the entire slate of her backers won spots on the executive as well.


Kamla immediately spoke of the need to heal and unite the party, offering an olive branch to those she defeated:

"In the heart of a campaign, people say things that may offend. But as a mother, a wife, a sister and a daughter, I know how to forgive. I hold no animosity against you."

Of course... the Silver Fox was not quite as gracious in defeat.Before the final results were announced, but when things were already looking grim, the Express asked him if he was ready to offer congratulations to Kamla. Bas had this response:

"’Not yet, certainly there are so many irregularities. I don’t have to concede defeat to anybody, when the elections results are finally declared, that may be the time.’

He also spoke about the other side resorting to 'thuggery', after being booed and jeered by UNC members when he went to cast his vote yesterday morning.

Even after the results were announced, he could not bring himself to utter the words.

From the Express:

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.

Ah boy... what else you could expect eh?

It will be interesting to see what the next steps will be now. Will the same parliamentary group who sided with Bas, now bow to the people's choice and choose Kamla as the Opposition Leader? Will Bas be able to keep them with him? Will Kamla be tough enough to insist that her colleagues choose her as political leader?


Will his side challenge the results? Will he take his part of the party with him and form yet another political party - to follow the ULF, NAR and Club88?

Oh the bacchanal never ends in Trini politics...

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It's Kamla!

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