Yvonne Webb

Hous­ing Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal launched his Na­tion­al­ists slate of can­di­dates for the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) in­ter­nal elec­tions in Cou­va on Mon­day night. Mak­ing her po­lit­i­cal de­but on the UNC plat­form at Or­ange Val­ley Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre was San Fer­nan­do may­or Mar­lene Coudray. Coudray, a for­mer mem­ber of the Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP), has been ac­cused of stag­ing a po­lit­i­cal coup by vy­ing for a po­si­tion in the UNC ex­ec­u­tive with­out in­form­ing her par­ty of her de­ci­sion to do so.

She de­clared her al­le­giance to the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) and its po­lit­i­cal leader Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar. Coudray, who came on the po­lit­i­cal scene through the COP, al­so tore in­to its chair­man Joseph Toney for his crit­i­cism of her ac­tion and his claims that the UNC was poach­ing their (COP) mem­bers. She said: "Let me as­sure you that I have not been poached. We used to say that about eggs one time.

"Of my own free will I joined the UNC and I be­lieve in many things. Peo­ple must be led by their con­science and my con­science led me to join the UNC." She told the au­di­ence, which in­clud­ed Mooni­lal, Dr Su­ruj Ram­bachan and Kevin Ram­nar­ine who are all vy­ing for a po­si­tion on the na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive, "for the past two years I have been every­where with the UNC. "All through the 2010 cam­paign, I was wear­ing a jer­sey marked Kam­la bold­ly in front. I out­grew it, that is why I am not wear­ing it tonight," she joked.

Coudray, who has been se­vere­ly crit­i­cised for her de­ci­sion by mem­bers of both the UNC and the COP, said her de­ci­sion to bat­tle for deputy po­lit­i­cal leader had to do with her sol­id vote of con­fi­dence in the par­ty's leader. She pledged to bring her ex­pe­ri­ence and ex­per­tise, hav­ing served 38 years in the pub­lic ser­vice to strength­en the par­ty so the po­lit­i­cal leader could fo­cus on is­sues of gov­er­nance.

Ram­nar­ine, who al­so spoke in sup­port of the Na­tion­al­ists, said there were many chal­leng­ing years ahead for the par­ty and en­dorsed the slate as the team to pro­vide the strength and sup­port for the leader. He added: "Next year we have the THA elec­tion and we have to sup­port our broth­er TOP to win that elec­tion. In 2013, we have the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tion to win and in 2015, we have the ul­ti­mate test, the gen­er­al elec­tion which we will win."

Ram­nar­ine said the T&T econ­o­my un­der the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship, which has been in Gov­ern­ment for the past 22 months, was the most pow­er­ful econ­o­my in the Caribbean.