Warner accuses UNC of an $80,000 con job

Jack Warner told United National Congress (UNC) supporters in Barackpore Sunday night the current leadership in the party has pulled off the “biggest con job in the 21st century” by taking $80,000 dollars from people who applied for membership in the party.

He was referring to the membership application fee of $5.00 that each person had to pay for membership in the party.

Last week, the party decided to reject 16,000 new applications for membership but according to Warner so far no one has said anything about refunding the money to those people who have been denied membership.

The Chaguanas West MP, who is running for the leadership of the party, said when he wins the election on January 24, one of his first tasks will be to restore the membership of all those whose applications were tossed out.

He called the membership issue "the worst form of betrayal of a people by its leader".

He said the party made the "noble" decision to expand its base but the betrayal began in earnest "when the UNC leadership under Mr. Basdeo Panday began discriminating on who should be given application forms and who should not based on their relationship with Mr. Panday."

He said that didn't discourage people from flocking to the party once they realized that UNC was the only answer to salvage the country from the social depredation.

"All of a sudden the whole nation wanted to be a part of the UNC. If I were the Political Leader of this Party I would have been in ecstasy to think that a party I have founded had improved its political currency by such leaps and bounds that it had become a major national attraction for all the right reasons.

"However, the twist to the tale is that the lion realized that his roar no longer held any terror and that for the first time in his pride a lioness had emerged with the credibility and credentials to lead the pack," he said in reference to Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the Siparia MP who is challenging Panday for the leadership.

He said Panday felt threatened and that led to the rejection of the 16,000 applications for membership.

Warner also addressed Panday's continuing claim that Warner received $30 million on behalf of the party and has so far failed to account for it.

Panday has claimed that Warner revolted after the party started asking questions about the money.

But Warner again dismissed the money talk as a fabrication, noting that no one has been able to name the "fictitious" character who provided the money.

He said if anyone can give that kind of money for an election campaign then the country needs serious electoral reform on party financing. And he said if that is the kind of money the UNC has been getting then Panday himself has some serious accounting to do.

He noted that in 20 years the party has failed to provide its membership of an audited account of how it spends its money.