Jack Warner faces expulsion from UNC for voting with PNM

The government needed one extra vote on Friday to pass its Securities Bill in Parliament and got it from an unlikely source - opposition MP Jack Warner. The bill seeks to tighten T&T’s financial securities system and regulate the Stock Exchange to prevent insider trading and other problems.

The UNC caucus had agreed that members would not vote on the bill but Warner either didn't know of the the party's decision or deliberately broke ranks and voted with the government.

His "dissident" colleague Winston "Gypsy" Peters decided to toe the party line while Ramesh L. Maharaj was absent.

Government MPs were taken aback by Warner's vote. House leader Colm Imbert called it "very surprising" and congratulated Warner.

"One wouldn’t expect a UNC MP, especially a deputy leader, to vote against party lines, but apparently he voted on conscience, and he thought the bill was important. We’re very grateful to him," Imbert said.

Opposition leader Basdeo Panday was furious and declared that Warner's action confirmed his belief that Warner had been working with the PNM.

“I have been telling this country, time and again, that Warner and Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj had sold out to the PNM. This is now incontrovertible proof of it.”

Panday said Warner's action is a serious breach of the party policies and suggested that the matter would most likely be raised at Wednesday's party caucus. Warner walked out of last week's caucus after members refused to sit with him and Peters.

He has pledged to attend this week's meeting.

Panday said there have been cases like this before in the UNC, when members breached party directives. He told the Trinidad Guardian such action calls for serious action against the offender, including expulsion from the party.

“This situation has shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that they do not have the interest of the UNC and the country at heart, yet they want to lead our party and country...It is crystal clear where they are going and what they intend to do."

Panday predicted serious fallout. “I believe they will pay dearly for it at the hands of UNC members and the country in general, which now sees them for what they are, having fully sold out to the PNM."

He said he does not think the people "will easily forgive them for their deeds”, adding that the party would now have to move swiftly to ensure that the interests of UNC members in Warner's Chaguanas West constituency are protected.

“We have to begin looking after our members there. We’ll have to put a team in place there to seek the party’s interests.

During debate on the bill that Warner helped the PNM pass St Augustine MP Vasant Bharath signalled UNC support for the legislation.

Warner spoke about that at a meeting in Rio Claro. “The UNC acted with hypocrisy, since UNC MPs had said it was a good bill, then they abstained from voting...So I voted for the bill because I love T&T. They abstained. I leave you to judge them by their inaction,” he said.

The Trinidad Guardian said its sources say the UNC tried to bargain with the Government to support the bill, on condition that Government allowed debate on UNC’s no-confidence motion against Attorney General John Jeremie next week.

The paper said the Government rejected that.

Tabaquite MP Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj defended Warner, saying, “Jack voted to support the bill because he felt it was in the best interests of the people, and obviously Bharath thought so, too, judging from his opening statement.

“Also, the UNC caucus didn’t let Jack know what position the party had taken. So in light of what Bharath said, Jack was entitled to support the bill,” he explained.