SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Fil­ing of nom­i­na­tion pa­pers for the UNC in­ter­nal elec­tions at the Rien­zi Com­plex, Cou­va, was slow yes­ter­day. There was no fan­fare, tas­sa mu­sic or chant­i­ng sup­port­ers ac­com­pa­ny­ing can­di­dates as com­pared to the par­ty's last in­ter­nal elec­tions. This time can­di­dates and their agents trick­led in.

Nom­i­na­tion pa­pers for Ch­agua­nas West MP, Jack Warn­er, who is con­test­ing the post of the par­ty's chair­man was filed by In­dra Maraj–Jages­sar, his elec­tion agent, short­ly be­fore noon. Maraj-Jages­sar said Warn­er's sup­port was tremen­dous. She said Warn­er was con­fi­dent that he will win by a land­slide should any­one de­cide to chal­lenge him.

Su­ruj Ram­bachan, the par­ty's deputy po­lit­i­cal leader, walked in with a team of young peo­ple which in­clud­ed his daugh­ter Ran­jana Ram­bachan. Ram­bachan said he had served the par­ty well in the past as a deputy po­lit­i­cal leader and will con­tin­ue to do so. Ram­bachan said he was hap­py to see the par­ty at­tract­ing more and more young peo­ple.

Nom­i­na­tion pa­pers were al­so filed by Collin Par­tap, who told the me­dia that he was not pre­pared to say what post he was con­test­ing. Ra­mona Ram­di­al, the Cou­va North MP, said she is con­test­ing the post of elec­tions agent. Mick­ela Pan­day, who leads the Gen­er­a­tion Next slate, shunned the me­dia.

Sunil Ramjits­ingh, who leads the UNC Sol­diers, said his group was vy­ing for 11 spots on the ex­ec­u­tive. How­ev­er, he said no one was chal­leng­ing the post of par­ty chair­man. All the posts on the na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive are up for grabs, ex­cept that of po­lit­i­cal leader. These in­clude chair­man, vice-chair­man, and the three deputy po­lit­i­cal leader posts. Of­fi­cials at Rien­zi Com­plex are ex­pect­ed to make the fi­nal list of nom­i­nees pub­lic to­day. Elec­tions are sched­uled for March 24.