Panday holds on despite landslide for Kamla

Basdeo Panday is not resigning his post of opposition leader despite the overwhelming rejection from the general membership of his United National Congress (UNC) in Sunday's internal election.

Spiaria MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar soundly defeated Panday winning 13,932 votes while a Panday polled 1,359. The other leadership candidate, Tabaquite MP Ramesh L. Maharaj received 1,072 votes.

Preliminary figures posted at the party's headquarters show that a total of 16,363 members voted. There were just over 34,000 eligible members on the voters' list.

All but one of Panday's team were wiped out. The sole survivor is Senator Wade Mark who won one of the three deputy leader. The two other deputy positions have gone to Persad-Bissessar loyalists, Suruj Rambachan and Opposition Senator Lyndira Oudit.

Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner trounced his rival, St Augustine MP Vasant Bharath, by a wide margin. The preliminary count gave him 9,073 votes; Bharath received 2,734. Bharath even lost in his own constituency as did Panday.

The future of members of the opposition in the Senate depends on who is the official opposition leader.

Ten MPs and four of the six Senators had pledged loyalty to Panday before the election and since then at least of one them, Harry Partap, has defected to the Persad-Bissessar side. And defeated leadership candidate Ramesh Maharaj has said he would support the new leader.

The opposition leader is appointed on the basis of majority support among opposition MPs and that person appoints the six opposition senators. Of the six Senators, only Oudit had supported Persad-Bissessar.

Senator Sharon Gopaul-McNicol is not a member of the UNC and was unable to vote.

So far JYOTI has learned that Persad-Bissessar will have the required number of MNPs supporting her, which means that she would be appointed opposition leader and then have the authority to change the composition of the Senate if she so wishes.

Panday has said that the MPs on the opposition side will have to determine who they wish to have as their leader and advise the president accordingly.

Panday said he is just following the constitution. "I became Leader of the Opposition because of a national election. Now this is a party election and I think they are two different things," he told reporters Monday.

He added, "I accept the democratic decision of the UNC electorate and I would accept the democratic decisions of the UNC Parliamentarians...This is the democracy. And I shall accept the democratic will of the MPs, as I have of the party."