News feature: Will anyone challenge Panday?

With Basdeo Panday announcing that he will run again for the leaderhsip of the United National Congress (UNC) the big question that remains is whether anyone would challenge him.

Panday has never faced a challenge for leadership and has been the undisputed leader ever since he and some political allies formed the UNC in 1989. So while he has always won, he has also never had to fight to be leader.

When Winston Dookeran won the 2005 internal election and became UNC leader it was Panday who signed his nomination papers and Dookeran was elected unopposed, with Panday as chairman as the party.

Panday also handed over political leadership once before - when he merged his United Labour Front (ULF) with the Organization for National Reconstruction (ONR) and the Democratic Action Congress (DAC) to form the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR).

He gave the leadership to A.N.R Robinson, who became prime minister following the Dec. 1986 election that swept the PNM out of office in a lopsided 33-3 win.

He said he made that decision not because he didn't have support but because he felt that Trinidad and Tobago was not ready for an "Indian leader" and that Robinson was then best candidate to win against the PNM.

That political marriage ended in divorce and when Panday left the NAR he and some former ULF colleagues formed CLUB 88 (the Caucus of Love, Unity and Brotherhood) which was the embryo for the UNC.

Panday became the undisputed leader who eventually took the party to government in 1995 in a coalition with the NAR, which had won 2 seats. The UNC and the PNM both won 17 seats in that election.

In 2000, Panday led the UNC to a majority victory over the PNM, becoming only the second party to ever defeat the PNM.

But his government fell within the first year when his Attorney General, Ramesh L. Maharaj, and two other cabinet ministers - Trevor Sudama and Ralph Maraj - broke with the party over corruption allegations and tried to cut a deal with the PNM to usurp the government.

Panday stopped that by calling an election, which led to the 18-18 tie that gave President Robinson the opening to appoint PNM leader Patrick Manning as prime minister on Christmas Eve 2001.

Manning's PNM subsequently won a clear majority in 2002 and in the 2007 election won a stronger majority of 26 in the 41-member House of Representatives.

In the 2007 election the UNC formed an alliance with several other parties and ran an election campaign under the joint leadership of Panday and UNC deputy leader Jack Warner. Panday also brought back Maharaj into the party.

But shortly after the party was returned to opposition, a rift began to develop over calls by Warner for internal elections and a rebranding of the party. That has led to open warfare with Panday and his allies on one side and Warner, Maharaj and Mayaro MP Winston 'Gypsy' Peters on the other.

Warner has said he is going to run for the Chairmanship of the UNC. But he has also deemed the national congress and national assembly illegal and has threatened legal action to stop it if necesssary.