UNC membership list not ready; executive to hold crisis talks

The United National Congress (UNC) is facing an organizational "nightmare" and membership chairman Kelvin Ramnath is now saying that it is "humanly impossible" to circulate the list of eligible voters for the internal election before next week.

The list should have been circulated since January 2nd but the party has postponed it more than once citing difficulty in completing the process.

And Ramnath doesn't think it will be available before nomination day on January 11 and there is speculation that the party could postpone the January 24, 2010 election.

“I am saying it is not only difficult but humanly impossible to be done before nomination day which is next Monday, we are facing a serious crisis,” Ramnath told Newsday.

He said officials have to validate 16,000 applications."The membership committee is required to conduct a review of all applications for membership in the party,” he told the paper, adding that it process becomes “more nightmarish every day”.

He said he plans to meet with the national executive Wednesday to discuss the problem.

The election timetable was for corrections to the preliminary list to be submitted to the elections committee by Thursday January 7 for review. But the party missed the original deadline and the revised one for publishing a revised list.

Ramnath told the paper the national executive will have to decide on Wednesday what to do about the problem and whether the party would consider postponing the vote.

Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner wrote to the elections committee twice about the problem with the membership list and the change of deadlines.

“The fact is as well that this arbitrary change of date has effectively thrown all election preparations into disarray, since the time-line of events, such as receiving objections to the list and filing nominations based on registered members have all been adversely affected,” Warner told committee chairman Khemchan Ramdath.