Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

Two day be­fore Jack Warn­er kicks off his elec­toral cam­paign, the UNC has an­nounced that he could face the par­ty's screen­ing com­mit­tee.How­ev­er, there is no guar­an­tee he would get the nod.The seat is yet to be de­clared va­cant, and UNC's act­ing chair­man Khadi­ja Ameen said once this is done of­fi­cial­ly by Speak­er Wade Mark next Fri­day, the par­ty would be­gin the pro­ce­dures to se­lect a can­di­date.

Speak­ing to re­porters af­ter the UNC's na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive meet­ing (known as Na­tex) at Rien­zi Com­plex on Thurs­day night, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said a de­ci­sion was tak­en at the meet­ing for Ameen to act as in­ter­im chair­man. She then di­rect­ed all ques­tions to Ameen.

Asked whether Warn­er would be screened and se­lect­ed to con­test the seat, Ameen said: "As you know, Mr Warn­er re­signed for­mal­ly. There is a pro­ce­dure when there is an elec­tion, there will be nom­i­na­tion, screen­ing and so on...we will fol­low the pro­ce­dure so the par­ty will deal with that."Asked whether calls were made for any dis­ci­pli­nary pro­ceed­ings against Warn­er over the Con­ca­caf find­ings, Ameen said that was nev­er dis­cussed.

As to whether Warn­er would be cho­sen au­to­mat­i­cal­ly as the Ch­agua­nas West can­di­date, Ameen said: "There is a pro­ce­dure, when­ev­er there is an elec­tion–lo­cal elec­tion, gen­er­al elec­tion–the par­ty has a pro­ce­dure to fol­low in terms of can­di­dates. Now that it is a par­ty mat­ter, the par­ty will de­cide and the pro­ce­dure will be fol­lowed."

Asked to ex­plain the pro­ce­dure, Ameen re­spond­ed: "It is sim­i­lar in all po­lit­i­cal par­ties in terms of screen­ing, but as I in­di­cat­ed, it is for the par­ty to de­cide at this time."She could not give the date for nom­i­na­tion and screen­ing.Asked why, Ameen said: "The truth is, Mr Warn­er's seat is not yet va­cant. The Par­lia­ment will be con­vened next Fri­day and it is ex­pect­ed the Speak­er will make an an­nounce­ment next Fri­day and it is then and on­ly then, the Ch­agua­nas West seat will be­come va­cant.

"We have to wait un­til it is de­clared va­cant and then nom­i­na­tions will open at some point and mem­bers will be in­vit­ed to bring in their nom­i­na­tions so that is the nor­mal pro­ce­dure is fol­lowed," she said."As of now, the seat has not been de­clared va­cant so nom­i­na­tions have not yet been opened."Ameen said she was not con­cerned about a by-elec­tion be­ing held on the heels of lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions.

She said the peo­ple would vote on the ba­sis of the Gov­ern­ment's per­for­mance in the lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions.