Panday, Dookeran should step down: NACTA poll

A new poll by the North American Caribbean Teachers Association (NACTA) suggests that supporters of the United National Congress (UNC) are convinced that their party cannot win an election in its present state. And it says a majority of UNC supporters would like UNC leader Basdeo Panday to step down as leader. A NACTA news release stated that its survey of 580 people in mid-October showed a similar picture with the Congress of the People (COP), with a mahjority of COP members saying Winston Dookeran should step down as leader. "They feel Panday should make way for new leadership. Voters in the UNC heartland said Jack Warner, or Kamla Persad-Bissessar, or Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj stand a better chance in uniting the factionalised opposition to take it into government," NACTA stated. NACTA said the view of 88 per cent of UNC supporters feel Panday must clear the way for a new leader while continuing to serve the party in an advisory role. It said it found then same sentiment among 90 per cent of COP supporters. "They blame Panday for the "political bacchanal" in the UNC and Dookeran for rift in the COP, and the two of them for lack of unity in the opposition," NACTA stated. Panday dismissed the poll suggesting it was bogus. "They produce whatever result whoever is paying them would like to see. They are totally without creditability," Panday told the Trinidad Express. Dookeran said "it is generally known that it is a politically inspired poll." NACTA said its poll also found that in "free and fair elections" in the UNC "the RamJack faction will emerge victorious for control of the executive because they are the only MPs who are seen as genuinely battling on behalf of the opposition". It also suggested that Panday is losing support in the Couva North constituency that he has held since entering the House of Representatives in 1976 and might have difficulty winning the seat again. "Voters are switching to RamJack, saying dissident MP Jack Warner of Chaguanas West has provided more services to and spends time with them in a few months than Panday did in 30 years," the NACTA stated.