Moonilal wants UNC members to regularise status

Deputy political leader of the United National Congress (UNC) Roodal Moonilal has advised party members to make sure they regularise their memberships.

Moonilal was commenting on the principal complaint of many UNC members who went to vote in Saturday's internal election only to discover that their names were not on the party's official electoral list.

Voting was conducted on a one member, one vote system. Many people registered as UNC members did not find their names on the list primarily because they had not paid their annual dues.

Many others did not fully understand the voting rules and felt they could vote just because they are supporters of the party. The party has more than 80,000 members but only about 20 per cent voted in the election.

Moonilal said that happened despite an education campaign ahead of the election through a media campaign. He invited members to validate their membership to ensure their names will be registered.

Moonilal suggested that the party may have to go into various areas to meet members and have the list regularised.

He also suggested that the party might have to review the conduct of the elections The Oropouche East MP said Saturday's election was a major challenge for the election committee and also for voters who had to choose from among 63 candidates for 17 positions.

Moonilal said for future elections the UNC might consider holding runoff primaries for candidates and only those reaching a particular level of support would get on the ballot. He also said the technology currently exists for electronic voting.

Over the weekend in Canada, the opposition NDP chose its leader through voting from its membership using the Internet. Each bona fide member was given a unique personal identification number (PIN) and allowed to vote within a specified window during the leadership convention.