Bharath assures

"Taken from our P O L I T I C S section."

UNC deputy chairman Vasant Bharath yesterday assured that the UNC National Executive is acting above board in conducting a vote next month on a no-confidence motion moved against the party’s political leader Winston Dookeran.

He scoffed at a report in yesterday’s edition that the Dookeran camp has serious concerns about ballot-stuffing at the August 13 National Assembly.

“That’s what we call taking in front,” Bharath said sarcastically.

In contrast, he assured that the National Executive firmly believes in democracy. “Any decision of this magnitude needs to be taken by the rank and file of the party. So the National Executive didn’t expel him”.

The National Executive, he said, has instead left it to the party’s units and organisations to decide on whether or not to expel Dookeran.

He said the National Executive can take whatever decision it wants if acts by members are contrary to the party’s constitution or are inimicable to the party.

Overseeing the vote, he said, will be an Election Committee whose members will be divulged today which he said will be made up of men “of very high repute” with regard to these kinds of elections.

Bharath criticised Dookeran for recently praising deceased past Senate President Ganace Ramdial, while having previously ridiculed him when Ramdial supervised the UNC’s internal elections.

“Ganace Ramdial signed off the internal elections as being a true, fair and accurate result of what had taken place.” Bharath said even if the National Executive chose the Archbishop to supervise the elections, the Dookeran camp would have their concerns.

He could not say who would replace Ramdial as heading the Elections Committee, but a decision would be made today. Bharath criticised plans by the Dookeran camp to hold 15 meetings spanning all constituencies starting today, to be concluded with a bigger meeting on July 23.

“These meetings have not been ratified by the National Executive and so are ultra vires the party. These are not UNC meetings but are meetings of a separate party, quite frankly,” Bharath said. He complained that over the past six months, members of the Dookeran camp had been discussing the party’s business in public. “As a result, people have had a certain one-sided diet of information fed to them.”