Panday still not leaving

IN THE aftermath of  Monday’s overwhelming Local Government Election defeat, Opposition leader Basdeo Panday has said that the election results did not have any bearing on his political future as leader of the United National Congress.

He was speaking to reporters after a special UNC executive meeting at, the party’s Rienzi Complex, Couva, headquarters yesterday. “The election result has nothing to do with my future as political leader of the UNC,” he said, and reiterated his willingness to retire from active politics after a suitable successor had been chosen by the party’s executive. And, flanked by members the party’s Local Government campaign team, comprising of Fyzabad MP Chandresh Sharma, Senator Wade Mark and Dr Tim Goopeesingh, Panday conceded that while the party had lost control of several electoral districts, the party had polled more votes than the ruling PNM. He said that according to preliminary results released by the EBC, the Opposition party had polled some 147,214 votes as compared to the PNM’s 146,000. “And this is just because we only contested 107 seats, while the PNM contested all 126 seats, so one can imagine what would have happened had we contested all of the seats,” he said.