Panday: No reconciliation with Ramesh yet

OPPOSITION LEADER Basdeo Panday yesterday said reconciliation with his former attorney general and deputy leader Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj was still very far off.  Panday also told Newsday that there were no plans for a follow-up “summit” to continue discussions about leadership differences within the UNC following its October 2 national executive elections. Following those elections, which saw Panday’s Patriots defeat the UNC Progressives 13 to five to take control of the executive, Maharaj came to his former leader’s defence against elements within the UNC that were demanding that Panday turn over the post of Opposition Leader to new UNC political leader Winston Dookeran.

Following the launch of his new ACT Trinidad and Tobago political movement in October, Maharaj said he was prepared to work with Panday to unite the country and all political forces opposed to the PNM. Panday, to the annoyance of Dookeran and UNC deputy leader Jack Warner, subsequently offered Maharaj a temporary UNC senator’s post.  Maharaj thanked Panday for the offer but declined, saying that the timing was not right. Warner then claimed that Panday’s days as Opposition Leader were numbered and a letter would be written to  President George Maxwell Richards indicating that the majority of the 16 Opposition MPs in the House of Representatives were supporting Dookeran as Opposition Leader. Ganga Singh, Gerald Yetming, Manohar Ramsaran and Gillian Lucky were the only UNC Lower House MPs who openly stated they would support Dookeran as Opposition Leader.

Asked yesterday whether there have been any further discussions between himself and Maharaj about their working together again, Panday said there had been talks but those talks were “not of any significance.” Maharaj is currently out of the country and was unavailable for comment yesterday. The UNC chairman said he remains committed to doing all within his power to unite all political forces in the country that are opposed to the ruling PNM. Asked whether any discussions have started between the UNC and any other political party about an accommodation or alliance against the PNM, Panday said no such discussion has taken place to date.

Questioned as to whether there would be any follow-up to the October “summit” at Dookeran’s Trincity home that was called to find a formula to resolve the differences resulting from the party’s national executive elections, Panday said none has been planned. He explained that the UNC’s national executive meets on Wednesdays at the party’s Rienzi Complex headquarters in Couva and there was nothing at this time which warranted an extraordinary meeting of the national executive. While the national executives’ members are yet to be officially sworn in and Panday could not say when that would happen, he gave the assurance that the executive is functioning. He added that the fact that its members have not been sworn in as yet, does not mean that the UNC’s national executive is not working.