Let's have elections, but keep party matters private: Ramnath

UNC veteran Kelvin Ramnath agrees with his party's deputy chairman, Jack Warner, that the party needs to hold internal elections and change in order to meet today's political challenges. But the Couva South MP and founding member of the party says the UNC must not deal with the issue in public.

"Mr Warner is entitled for a call for change, that is his right and there is a forum for it and I think that should be explored first of all. Elections are due and elections will be held but I don't think we would solve this problem in the newspapers," Ramnath told the Trinidad Express.

He said the party should hold internal elections adding that the UNC constitution lays out the rules and procedures for such a vote. "I don't think that anyone is objecting to elections right now, certainly I am not," he said.

Warner has publicly called for internal elections in the party and is urging party leader Basdeo Panday to restructure and reform the UNC. He has been quoted as saying some people have called the UNC a "dinosaur".

Panday has said the UNC's national executive has agreed that the election would be held after the local government, which has been postponed twice and is now scheduled for mid-2009.

Warner has also made it clear that he has no quarrel with Panday, adding that his leader is the best politician in the country. However he said the former prime minister must use his experience to shake up the party and move it forward.

He has also said he has no plans to leave the party which he loves. And he has said he would continue to work to unite all opposition forces against the governing PNM.

The Chaguanas West MP has also dismissed charges from unnamed sources that he and Opposition Chief Whip Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj are plotting to take over the party. Maharaj declined comment on the matter, telling the Express he does not place value on rumours.