Jack won't work with Panday, threatens court action if Panday wins UNC election

Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner is threatening to go to court if Basdeo Panday wins Sunday's United National Congress (UNC) election and is returned as leader.

Warner is the party's Deputy Leader in charge of administration and is running for the post of chairman in the internal election. He is supporting leadership candidate Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

During a walkabout in El Dorado Monday Warner told reporters he has raised many issues with the party, especially with the final membership list.

"At this point in time I will run the campaign with no list. I say let them keep it. I had planned to picket Rienzi...with all the people who have been disenfranchised, I won’t even do that.

"Let them keep the list, I will fight the election without the list," he said.

He has suggested that the delay in releasing the voters' list is because the team that supports Panday is rigging the elections.

"It is a deliberate ploy and they are hoping that I take them to court, but I won’t take them to court now. It have time for that after, they are hoping that I do something to stop the elections.

"I won’t give them that chance at all. I will lie down and play dead, but after the elections we shall have a very long, hot summer,’ Warner told the Trinidad Express.

He said if he wins the chairmanship and Panday is reelected leader he would find it impossible to work with Panday. "I would not work with Mr Panday...I can’t work with him," he said.

Warner has endorsed 17 candidates. Twelve of them are on Persad-Bissessar’s slate and five are running as independents.

The chairman of the UNC membership committee, Kelvin Ramnath is not surprised at Warner's comments. He accused Warner of making unfounded accusations.

"I think he’s writing his defeat speech after the elections," Ramnath told the Express.

Ramnath said the lists are ready. He blamed the delay on the length of time it took for processing the data and printing.