Jyoti's Political Personalities of 2009

It's always a tough call to determine who should make it to the top of the list as a news personality for the year. We decided to narrow the field to the year's political personality and still faced great difficulty. In the end, after much debate, here are our top three picks in no order of priority.Each stood against the tide and each challenged the status quo.

Warner demanded the UNC hold elections and rebrand itself to become a modern political party capable of winning an election. His passion for change made him the UNC's latest neemakharm.

He became a pariah and was villified. But he pressed on with his agenda to fix what was wrong with the UNC, created the Movement for Change, persevered with his colleagues to draft a Manifesto for Change.

He stood his ground and won the first major round of the fight when the party capitulated and announced that it will hold elections on January 24, 2010

Rowley made serious allegations of corruption against the government and shook up the PNM political establishment while remaining committed to his constituents, the party and its founding principles. He angered his leader and others in the PNM hierarchy.

He too demanded change and warned that the next election would be fought on the issue of PNM corruption.

Persad-Bissessar made political history by what some people called a revolt against her leader. But in announcing that she would become the first woman to seek election as the leader of a major political party she insisted that she had no quarrel with her leader.

She said her move was for the general good of the party and the country. The mission, she said, is to become the leader, unify the party and then take the UNC back to government.

Each of them earned news headlines throughout the year for their stand on critical national political issues.