Panday not running again

The "chief" is calling it a day.

Basdeo Panday has decided that he will not run as a candidate in the 2010 general election.

Panday was ousted as leader of the opposition United National Congress (UNC) in the January 24 internal election in which Kamla Persad-Bissessar won a landslide to become the new leader.

Panday had refused to acknowledge her victory and he had predicted that under Persad-Bissessar's leadership the UNC would collapse within six months.

Panday has represented Couva North since 1976 when he first entered the House of Representatives as leader of the United Labour Front.

His decision not to offer himself for re-election ends an active political career that began in 1966 when he ran unsuccessfully as a member of the Workers and Farmers' Party.

He later entered public life as the president of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Union and later led a nationwide protest along with other trade unions which culminated in the formation of the ULF, which went on to replace the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) as the official opposition.

In the 1981 general election he formed an alliance with the Tapia House Movement and the Democratic Action Congress (DAC) led by Arthur N.R. Robinson. That year saw the birth of the Organization for National Reconstruction, led by former PNM Attorney General, Karl Hudson Phillips.

The ULF alone won seats among the opposition parties. Five years later Panday was instrumental is merging all the opposition parties in the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) and handed the leadership to Robinson.

Panday also gave Robinson some of his most strategic seats as part of the unity deal. In the end the lopsided 33-3 victory that pushed out the PNM turned out to be a handicap for Panday.

His ULF ideology was in conflict with Robinson's ideas and a split developed which led to his break with Robinson. That eventually led to the formation of the UNC which won government in a coalition with Robinson when Prime Minister Patrick Manning called an election ahead of the due date.

Panday is still bitter about his changed status. He told reporters he decided not to file any nomination papers because he objected to the fact that UNC Chairman Jack Warner will be one of the people who will "determine whether I will contest the constituency that I have represented for over 30 years."

He said Warner is in no position to do that because he was not one of the founders of the party. And he said it would be "a tragedy to inflict somebody like Warner upon the population."

Panday told the media he can now spend his time working on completing his biography. "And I will be working as I have always worked to assist those persons who are in need of assistance," he added.