Mickela Panday
?In five weeks time, after the United National Congress (UNC) holds its long overdue internal party elections, difficult questions will have to be answered about the future direction of the party and its ability, not only to fulfill its important constitutional role as an effective Opposition, but also to persuade the citizenry that it could be viable, competent and responsible government.
In order to do so, given over the last five years the party has lost the Local Government election, the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) election, the Chaguanas West by-election, the St Joseph by-election, and the September 7, 2015, general election, it will first have to re-establish itself as an all embracing, representative, accountable, transparent and democratic organisation, that both existing, and new members could trust.
The first test will no doubt be the party's willingness to embrace the golden opportunity presented, to hold the upcoming internal elections in an open, free, fair and transparent manner in accordance with the party's constitution. Given the abysmal collapse of its institutions, internal democracy is essential now, more than ever, to revive the image of the party and so, mechanisms must be put in place to restore confidence and credibility.
In this light, it is a tremendous disappointment, one month before the election is to be held, the membership is none the wiser as to what measures, if any, have been put in place to ensure the elections would be free, fair and accesible to all eligible voters.
Regrettably, to date, the party's leadership remains eerily silent on who will be conducting the internal election. Equally disturbing is the undated notice published in the daily newspapers on the October 28, (not issued under the hand of any officer of the United National Congress, or the General Secretary), simply stating "Important dates to be noted."
If this published notice is in fact valid, in the interest of democracy, transparency and accountability within the party, the executive needs to explain to the membership, why amongst other things, existing, and prospective members, were given only two days in which to verify and/or register their names on the membership list. Surely in the event, existing members were to discover their names had been inexplicably removed, as was the case during the last internal election, two days would be insufficient to rectify this problem.
Further, it is illogical and unjust to ask prospective candidates to submit their nomination forms for scrutiny, by an unknown election committee, on November 13, and thereafter publish the preliminary list of legitimate voters, two days later on November 15.
How can you submit a nomination form without knowing whether or not you are on the list? It would follow, if you submit your form on November 13, and then subsequently realise your name is not on the published list on November 15, you would be automatically disqualified from contesting the election with no recourse, as the deadline date for registration of members would have passed some three weeks before that.
In all, when consideration is given to the way in which the spirit of the UNC constitution has been flouted and breached in relation to the holding of internal elections, and the uncertainty and suspicions which have arisen by: (1) the sudden announcement of snap elections particularly where the acting chairman had said repeatedly that "constitutional reform" was required first, (2) the refusal to allow potential candidates to view the existing membership list which remains inaccessible, (3) the posting of the revised membership list eight days before the election date, (4) the process employed for verification of nominees, (5) the fact that the elections are to be conducted by a committee which appears to be less than independent, and (6) the control of the process by a general secretary who for the last five years shunned his responsibilty to the party in favour of working as an adviser to the former prime minister; it is my prediction that the UNC, its "leadership", and the Opposition will be even weaker and more unelectable after the internal elections than they were before.