Bas offered Kamla "any post" in his election team: Sources

Well-placed sources have told JYOTI that United National Congress (UNC) leader Basdeo Panday telephoned Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Friday and offered her "any position" she wanted on his team for the January 24, 2010 UNC internal election.

The sources said Panday's offer was meant to pre-empt Persad-Bissessar's announcement on Saturday that she would challenge Panday for the leadership of the party.

The sources said Persad-Bissessar had not yet made a firm decision on whether to run and promised to think about it.

But they said the urgency of Panday's call indicated that he might be worried that a challenge from the Siparia MP might hurt his own chances of retaining control of the party and might have sealed the matter for Persad-Bissessar about running.

The sources also say one of Panday's must trusted MPs has deserted the leader and is now working behind the scenes to help Persad-Bissessar win the election. But they did not name the parliamentarian.

Persad-Bissessar has not commented on the reports.

Panday is suspending his campaign until after Christmas to take a break in England with his family. Sources close to him say it would give the leader some time to contemplate the future and decide if he wants to continue in a contest that is likely to end in defeat.

However UNC insiders dismiss that as "ole talk" saying Panday is firm in his resolve to fight any challenger and win. They say he made a pledge to lead so long as the people ask him and there is no turning back from that.

They say many people are make judgments on the false premise that this is a general election.

They say while Persad-Bissessar might appear to be well ahead of the competition in opinion polls, the reality is that only qualified UNC members can vote so that public opinion outside of the UNC's financial membership is irrelevant to this election.

Only financial members registered by Dec. 18 would be eligible to vote and they alone will decide who leads the party.

UNC Deputy Leader Jack Warner said earlier this week that he has a list with 130,000 names but UNC sources said only about 34,500 members are financial. Warner is hoping to contact as many of the people whose names are on the list to get them to become financial and to vote in the election.

But there is less than a week for that project and there are complaints from people like Mayaro MP Winston "Gypsy" Peters who has charged that certain members of staff at the party's Reinzi Complex are frustrating efforts to register voters.

The office manager and another long-serving staff members have been removed and the person who is looking after registration matters is a niece of Oma Panday, wife of the UNC leader.

Warner has charged that Panday is planning to rig the vote in his favour and is making attempts to have an independent observer team monitor the election.

Panday has dismissed charges that he is planning "to steal" the election, saying that those who are saying that know they are going to lose and are making excuses ahead of their impending defeat.