{"id":2382,"date":"2010-01-25T02:38:17","date_gmt":"2010-01-25T06:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=2382"},"modified":"2010-01-25T03:20:51","modified_gmt":"2010-01-25T07:20:51","slug":"kamla-is-new-unc-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=2382","title":{"rendered":"Kamla is new UNC boss"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kamla<\/a>
Kamla Persad-Bissessar is new UNC Political leader<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

KAMLA IS UNC BOSS<\/a> newsday.co.tt
\nSiparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar last night won by a landslide to be elected the new UNC political leader, while Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner is the party’s new chairman, displacing Basdeo Panday, who founded the party 20 years ago. Panday was the party’s leader and chairman.<\/p>\n

Kamla crushes Bas<\/a> guardian.co.tt
\nSiparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar has put a sound licking on her two rivals to become the new leader of the United National Congress (UNC). In the process, she became the first woman to become the leader of a major political party in Trinidad and Tobago. Although results were trickling in at UNC headquarters at Rienzi Complex, Couva, Persad-Bissessar was clear in the lead in most of the 28 polling stations. Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner was also heading for a landslide victory against St Augustine MP Vasant Bharath.
\n
\nRamesh concedes<\/a>
\nRamesh Lawrence Maharaj conceded defeat last night, extending congratulations to Kamla Persad-Bissessar and saying that he hoped she will make good of her plan to take the UNC into government. Speaking at a press conference at St Mary\u2019s Junction in Freeport last night, Maharaj said that the membership had spoken overwhelmingly in favour of Persad-Bissessar, as they had voted for change. Several supporters greeted Maharaj as he walked in to loud applause. In a 15-minute address, he said he looked at the trends of the voting and realised that there was no way possible that he or Basdeo Panday could win the post of political leader. Maharaj said he did not think that his accidental meeting with Panday recently at the office of Kelvin Ramnath had anything to do with his lack of support.<\/p>\n

Ready to work with opponents<\/a>
\nExcoriated as a weakling incapable of leading and hiding a drinking weakness, Kamla Persad-Bissessar proved last night she had the political strength to beat two political legends. <\/p>\n

Jack wins, hails Kamla<\/a>
\nWarner thanked Panday for keeping the party alive and said that with the passing of the mantle yesterday, reality will eventually dawn on him. Warner said Panday has been the victim of people close to him who should have advised some time ago that it was time to bow out. <\/p>\n

A victory for T&T: Jack<\/a>
\nChaguanas West MP Jack Warner said last night that he was humbled by being elected chairman of the UNC. Speaking at the Chaguanas West constituency office, Warner congratulated Kamla Persad-Bissessar on becoming political leader. \u201cI am happy to have her as my political leader,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to reach out to Mr Panday, to tell him that the party he led for the past 20 years will today begin the process of getting back into government. \u201cI would like to thank Mr Panday for what he has done to keep the party alive for the last 20 years.\u201d Warner defeated St Augustine MP Vasant Bharath for the post of chairman.<\/p>\n

It’s not over, says Panday<\/a>
\nOpposition Leader Basdeo Panday hinted last night that action may be taken by his supporters challenging the results of yesterday’s internal elections. <\/p>\n

Cries of rigging as voters turned away<\/a><\/p>\n

Stalwarts turned away<\/a>
\nLifetime members of the United National Congress (UNC) were among several hundred people who left some of the party’s polling stations angry and frustrated during its crucial internal elections yesterday as they were not allowed to vote. <\/p>\n

MP Nizam Baksh blanked from voting<\/a><\/p>\n

Weaknesses in UNC machinery<\/a>
\nCHAIRMAN of the United National Congress (UNC) internal elections committee Kemchand Ramdath yesterday described the omission of MP Nizam Baksh’s name from the party’s internal electoral list as “very strange”, as he last night admitted to weaknesses in the party’s election machinery. <\/p>\n

Dookeran: Time to move forward<\/a>
\nCongress of the People political leader Winston Dookeran said last night, now that Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar has become the elected political leader of the Opposition party, ‘The nation must now grasp the opportunity to move forward.’<\/p>\n

Kamla’s challenges<\/a>
\nThe victory of Kamla Persad-Bissessar for political leader in the internal elections of the United National Congress is historic on two counts. One, it is the first time that an internal challenger has unseated the incumbent leader of a major political party in Trinidad and Tobago; and, two, it is the first time a woman has been elected the leader of any existing political party, major or minor, in the country. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMLA IS UNC BOSS newsday.co.tt Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar last night won by a landslide to be elected the new UNC political leader, while Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner is the party’s new chairman, displacing Basdeo Panday, who founded the party 20 years ago. Panday was the party’s leader and chairman. Kamla crushes Bas guardian.co.tt … Continue reading Kamla is new UNC boss<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[141,1,7,142],"tags":[140,1036,147,144,1015,1037],"class_list":["post-2382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cop","category-general-tt","category-politics","category-unc","tag-basdeo-panday","tag-cop","tag-jack-warner","tag-kamla-persad-bissessar","tag-politics","tag-unc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2382"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2389,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2382\/revisions\/2389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}