Shas­tri Boodan

It's of­fi­cial. Her­bert Vol­ney, for­mer High Court judge, has been con­firmed by the Op­po­si­tion UNC as the par­ty's of­fi­cial can­di­date to con­test the St Joseph seat. Vol­ney emerged from Rien­zi Com­plex Cou­va, just af­ter 3 pm yes­ter­day. In­ter­viewed by re­porters af­ter his screen­ing, Vol­ney said he was fed up of the Patrick Man­ning regime. "This is per­haps the most ju­di­cious de­ci­sion I have ever had to make in the full face of any crit­i­cism which this may cause," he said.

"I feel com­pelled to leave be­hind a ca­reer and life in the ju­di­cia­ry to save a coun­try I?know that would not sur­vive an­oth­er term un­der the cur­rent po­lit­i­cal lead­er­ship.?"I have weighed my op­tions care­ful­ly be­fore mak­ing the sac­ri­fice of a ju­di­cial ca­reer of which I have a fur­ther eight years which I could serve in or­der to as­sist the process of de­liv­er­ing our beloved T&T from the cri­sis it faces to­day."

Vol­ney said, too, that he was con­fi­dent that his­to­ry would vin­di­cate his de­ci­sion. Mean­while, po­lit­i­cal leader of the UNC, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, said it was in Vol­ney's con­sti­tu­tion­al right to "do what he is do­ing." The UNC leader said she be­lieved Man­ning should be the last per­son to raise any is­sue against Vol­ney, "when the per­son he had se­lect­ed was a sit­ting judge, and when he did not win the elec­tion, went back to sit on the Bench."