UNC on guard to reject "bogus" members

The United National Congress (UNC) says it has obtained a list of members of the Congress of the People (COP) and will make sure that no one who is a member of that party can vote in Sunday's internal election.

The issue of COP members trying to influence the UNC vote has been a very contentious one. The party has rejected 16,000 applications for membership.

Many of them were former UNC members who had abandoned the party and joined COP but wanted to return to their original party.

Officials at UNC headquarters said it tossed out the applications because it was unable to process them on time.

But candidates running against the team led by UNC leader Basdeo Panday have rejected that excuse noting that there was plenty of time to complete the exercise and that membership chairman Kelvin Ramnath had indicated weeks ago that the process was 90 per cent completed.

Ramnath did not say where he got the list or whether it is an official record of COP's membership. COP leader Winston Dookeran has refused to give the party's official records to the UNC.

A precedent has been established on maintaining confidentiality on a party's membership list.

The issue came up in court recently in a judicial hearing in which opposition leader Basdeo Panday’s lawyers requested an official list of the PNM membership. The party did not present the list, citing privacy matters.

However, in the UNC election matter, Ramnath has said Dookeran has acted irresponsibly by not cooperating with the party to help sort out the issue of possible dual memberships.

Ramnath said every polling station in the country in Sunday's vote would be equipped with a list of COP members and he has warned that no one whose name is on the COP list would be allowed to vote.

The UNC has published notices warning that any one with dual membership with the UNC and another party would be barred from voting on Sunday.

“We will ensure that not a single person who holds dual membership would be allowed to vote on Sunday,” Ramnath told the Newsday newspaper.

He also said the deadline has passed for persons to add their names to a supplemental list of voters.

“All constituency offices were informed that we will be issuing a supplemental list for those persons who are registered and whose names were not on the list when it should have been,” Ramnath told the paper.

Chaguanas West MP has challenged that list, stating that it was not authorized by the national executive. He has also said it is highly irregular for such a list to be compiled for an election.

Warner, who is running for the post of UNC chairman, has expressed deep concerns about the electoral process and has hired lawyers to deal with any voting irregularities.

He has also said that he has an "army" of persons who will monitor what is happening on election day and document anything that appears suspicious.