"You are a loser," Kamla tells Panday

Siparia MP and UNC leadership candidate Kamla Persad-Bissessar took off the gloves Saturday as she went on the attack against Basdeo Panday saying there is no way he will ever get the party back into government.

After praising Panday in a speech earlier this week, putting him on a pedestal and gently chipping away at it to show that Panday can't win again, she went on the offensive Saturday night in El Dorado.

She called Panday a loser, saying it is a lie that he led the UNC to three victories against the PNM.

"The UNC only win one election under Mr. Panday. Only one...For 44 years he has been fighting elections and only for six years of those he was in government, and a few months in 1987 as a foreign minister under Mr. Robinson," she said.

She walked with electoral figures to support her assertion, saying a tie is not a win, no matter how you spin it. And she said the facts show Panday lost four successive elections since 2001.

"If you are a party that cannot win then you are a failure. When you lose four elections in a row you are a loser. You have to win...the leader of our party can rant and rave as much as he wants and try to drag people down with his slander but he cannot change one fact. He is no longer capable of winning an election," she said.

She also took issue with statements made by Panday during his campaign stops. On Friday Panday asked for a "disciplined team" and pledged that with it he will take the party to government.

But she said it is not going to happen.

"The team he is running now is the same one he had in 2007 - with a few cosmetic changes and the loss of three powerful members - and he lost.

"Now three of your best players are gone and you telling me that same old team going to win. WIN WHAT?" she demanded.

"We started out with 19 seats, drop to 18 and ended up with 15...and 114,000 people run away. And then what happen?

"You had a disciplined team and lost. You chased away the best of them, you chased away all our supporters, you chased away everybody. How are you going to win?" she asked.

"What are you going to win when you can't even walk in Couva North?"

Persad-Bissessar also took issue with a statement attributed to Panday in which he is reported to have said that the Siparia MP is the least liked among UNC MPs. Again she pulled out the electoral figures to dispute Panday.

"In 2007 of the 41 constituencies we won 15. And of the 15, only FOUR had more than 10,000 votes.

"The highest votes in Trinidad and Tobago for the UNC was in Chaguanas West – 11,140; the second highest was in Naparima and the third highest vote for the 10,338 and the third was in Siparia.

"So if in political terms we talking about love. The three best loved people are Jack Warner, Nizam Baksh and Kamla." She said the reverse if true of Panday.

"And you want to know who are the least loved? Caroni East, Caroni Central, Couva south and Couva North.

"The least votes came from these constituencies – and you want to know who are the MPs? I will tell you. Tim Gopeesingh, Hamza Rafeeq, Kelvin Ramnath and Badeo Panday," she said.

She also dealt with Panday's criticism that she was using her gender to win votes. "Don't insult women and suggest that they are dotish to vote me because I am a woman.

"Mr Panday I offer hope when you offer failure. I am a woman and I am proud of it; I am a leader and you are not. And that is why people will vote for me," she said.

She urged supporters to make sure they vote because only their vote will make the difference.

"And when I become leader of the UNC the whole country will be in safe hands. Because we will fix our internal problems and we will win the government," she said.