Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

As Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning is ac­cus­ing the UNC of un­der­min­ing the in­de­pen­dence of the ju­di­cia­ry, UNC po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is ad­mit­ting that the Her­bert Vol­ney is­sue could have been han­dled bet­ter. Per­sad-Bisses­sar was speak­ing to re­porters yes­ter­day, af­ter fil­ing her nom­i­na­tion pa­pers at Ram­lal Street, Pe­nal. Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­nied that there was any un­der­min­ing of the ju­di­cia­ry be­cause of Vol­ney's res­ig­na­tion.

"Mr Vol­ney was not a sit­ting judge when we screened him or when we gave him the can­di­da­cy in St Joseph seat," Per­sad-Bisses­sar stat­ed. She added: "I think, maybe it could have been done bet­ter. Maybe there could have been a longer time be­tween his res­ig­na­tion and be­ing a can­di­date, but then it was Man­ning who forced an elec­tion and called an ear­ly date. "Snap elec­tions call for snap de­ci­sions, and so whilst some may say there is that con­cern, and there should have been more space be­tween the res­ig­na­tion and the can­di­da­cy, time did not per­mit it."

She ex­plained that this con­cern should be washed out by the greater good, be­cause Vol­ney brought to the UNC knowl­edge, wis­dom and ex­pe­ri­ence. "He is act­ing to­tal­ly with­in the law of T&T. He is ex­e­cut­ing his civ­il rights and con­sti­tu­tion­al rights. He is now Cit­i­zen Vol­ney, and every cit­i­zen has a right to of­fer them­selves as can­di­dates, and I do be­lieve he will help us to make a bet­ter gov­ern­ment." Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so al­leged that peo­ple were be­ing of­fered $7,000 and $10,000 to do cer­tain things to in­flu­ence the votes.