Panday to Jack: resign and fight Suruj in byelection

Basdeo Panday has challenged Jack Warner to resign as the MP Chaguanas West and fight a by-election against Suruj Rambachan, the former mayor of Chaguanas who Warner helped topple on Monday.

“If Jack Warner has the slightest speck of integrity he will resign that seat which he won on the UNC’s ticket and fight a by-election for it on his own and the UNC will put up Suruj to fight him for it,” Panday told the Trinidad Guardian.

“If Warner decides to fight it on his own, it will prove he is not a coward and that money cannot buy everything," he said.

Panday also issued a similar challenge to Warner's Platform for Change colleagues Ramesh L. Maharaj and Winston "Gypsy", saying they should also quit and face UNC candidates.

Speaking about Monday's Chaguanas Borough Council election in which Rambachan lost his job as mayor, Panday said, “What they did for us on Monday has proven the Opposition’s point that they are in league with the PNM to destroy the Opposition."

He told the paper when Warner, Peters and Maharaj voted for Government bills recently, they confirmed their alliance with the PNM. "They have now given the Government power to pass any bill they want in the House regardless of how it affects the public," he said.

“They don’t seem to realise that their vindictive acts to get back at the UNC have compromised the national interest more than anything,” Panday observed, adding that the country is now in danger "of having Manning successfully challenge the Constitution with bills and have his executive presidency for life and any other changes he wants because they are voting with Government now."

Warner has not responded to Panday's challenge but Rambachan told the Guardian he is willing to fight Warner.

“Certainly if this is what is necessary to bring Chaguanas West back into the UNC’s hands, why not?” Rambachan said.

Rambachan believes he can win the seat because in his opinion Warner has betrayed the people of Chaguanas West.

Chaguanas - which has now been divided into two seats - has been the jewel in the opposition crown for decades. It is also the constituency that has seen the rise and fall of politicians who have won landslides only to be soundly defeated after they defected from the party.

Among those who won and lost after falling out with Panday are former Central Bank Governor, Winston Dookeran, now leader of the Congress of the People (COP), Hulsie Bhaggan and Manohar Ramsaran.

Warner defeated Ramsaran by a landslide in the 2007 general election, with 11,140 votes to Ramsaran's 5,280 as the candidate for COP. The PNM candidate received 1,1519 votes.