Panday fires Sen. Oudit, offers no explanation

Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday has fired Senator Lyndira Oudit from the Trinidad and Tobago Senate, a highly confidential UNC source told JYOTI Friday afternoon.

Oudit is the lone opposition Senator who opposed Panday in the recent internal election in the United National Congress (UNC), which saw Panday defeated by a 10 to 1 margin for the post of leader of the UNC.

Under the Republican Constitution Panday can retain the post of leader of the opposition as long as he has the support of a majority of opposition MPs. Up to now, there has been no official attempt to change that and Panday still holds the post.

The new UNC leader, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, has indicated that she would soon have enough support to remove Panday, but at the same time she has indicated that she can continue to do her job as leader of the people.

So far she is one short of the required majority to oust Panday.

But according to JYOTI's source the move against Oudit is an attempt by Panday to demonstrate the power he holds and to send a signal that he has no plans to leave office.

During the internal election Panday had suggested that Oudit should quit since she had lost confidence in the leader who appointed her to the senate. But she responded, saying that she was appointed to represent the UNC in the Upper House and would continue to do so.

While Panday holds the post of opposition leader he can hire and fire Senators, but the leader of the party that is the official opposition - the UNC - controls the agenda in the House of Representatives.

Using that authority Persad-Bissessar replaced the Panday-appointed Chief Whip, Dr Hamza Rafeeq, and appointed UNC Chairman, Jack Warner to the post.

Panday's response to that has been to use his former Whip to decide that St Augustine MP Vasant Bharat would represent the party at a parliamentary conference in the United Kingdom.

That decision was never discussed with the UNC's new executive, according to sources close to the executive.

Oudit said Friday she accepts Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday verbal revocation of her appointment as an UNC Senator in the Trinidad and Tobago Parliament.

In a media statement, she said Panday telephoned her at 1.45 pm local time to tell her that he is removing her from the Senate. She said Panday did not offer an explanation but added that he has decided to accept the revocation of her appointment since Panday has the constitutional right to make such a decision.

Panday has also fired two members of staff at his government-funded opposition office in Port of Spain - Colin Partap and Dave Tancoo. Both are supporters of new UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar. Partap is now a member of the UNC national executive.