Last call for UNC members

Membership committee chairman Kelvin Ramnath yesterday said the party has been receiving an overwhelming volume of application forms from all parts of the country and the preliminary list would be compiled by December 24 and circulated among constituencies from January 2.

“We are using the guidelines as issued by the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) to conduct these elections as it pertains to the membership list,” he said.

Persons have until 5 pm today to submit their applications after which all forms would be reviewed by the membership committee.

He said from January 3 to 6 persons could lodge complaints or have corrections made to the preliminary list.

Ramnath said the list would then be forwarded to the membership committee on January 7 for a review after which it would be finalised and published on January 11.

“So there is no need to be worried about the membership list by Mr (Jack) Warner or by Mr (Sylvester) Ramquar because all of the EBC procedures are being used,” he said.

Ramnath also said Warner, the Chaguanas West MP and a UNC deputy political leader, Tabaquite MP Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar and UNC political leader Basdeo Panday all participated in a meeting in which they agreed that from 2005 all financial members would have their status continued while new members were added to the party.

His comments were in response to an e-mail by Ramquar and addressed to the internal elections committee in which Ramquar claimed members were being forced to go the party’s Rienzi Complex, Couva to find out if their names were on the membership list.

“There are a number of members who are interested in ensuring that they are entitled to vote in the upcoming elections. Neither the party nor your committee has published a preliminary list of financial members who will be entitled to participate in the party’s exercise in democracy,” Ramquar wrote.

“Members are even interested to reapply before the deadline date in order to ensure that their fundamental rights are preserved but they are not aware if their names appear on the financial list nor can they get application forms,” he added.

Warner, who was also sent a copy of Ramquar’s e-mail, responded saying “good would ultimately triumph over evil” in the January 24 internal elections.

“I understand your (Ramquar) pain and that of so many others who are experiencing the experiences to which you refer. But I am convinced that, notwithstanding these deliberate hurdles, good will eventually triumph over evil as it always does,” Warner wrote.