No COP members voting in UNC election: Bharath

The battle for the UNC get into full gear this coming week with Jack Warner and Basdeo Panday launching their campaigns for the internal elections on January 24.

Individual members of the party will determine who is elected to the various executive posts, the most important of which are leader and chairman.

Panday is facing two challengers - Tabaquite MP Ramesh L. Maharaj and Siparia MP kamla Persad-Bissessar. So far, Warner is the only candidate for chairman, but there is strong speculation that the current vice-chairman, Vasant Bharath would run for the post.

The membership list should have been posted since Saturday but the party has decided to do that by 6:00 pm Tuesday.

Speaking on national radio Monday morning, the head of the membership committee said there are about 11,000 new members. Kelvin Ramnath said it is taking a little longer than expected to check and verify each application for membership because the party has to be sure that people who are sending in applications don't hold membership in other parties.

The UNC is particularly concerned about former members who had defected to the Congress of the People (COP) who might still hold membership in that party.

The party is insisting that it will not allow dual membership.

Vice chairman Bharat has said the process is cumbersome because the membership committee has go through the thousands of applications for membership with "a fine-tooth comb to ensure they are indeed bona fide members".

He told the Trinidad Express the elections committee has found bogus forms and it must be very vigilant.

He also made it clear that no one who is a member of another party can vote, noting specially that there might be some COP members who would want to vote in this election.

But he has not explained the verification process, since political parties do not make their lists public or provide them to rival organizations.

The UNc committee is believed to be using a 2005 membership list which would have names of former members who might have become COP members.