Gail Alexan­der

For­mer UNC MP Ra­mona Ram­di­al has called out the op­po­si­tion on the le­git­i­ma­cy of its na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive. She has queried the fact that gen­er­al sec­re­tary Dave Tan­coo and PRO Ani­ta Haynes have re­tained their par­ty posts de­spite be­ing MPs. Ram­di­al said the re­ten­tion of the par­ty posts by the MPs is con­trary to UNC’s con­sti­tu­tion

Ram­di­al, the for­mer Cou­va North MP, made the call in a re­cent let­ter to par­ty chair­man Pe­ter Kan­hai. In re­cent times she has been crit­i­cal of the UNC’s gen­er­al elec­tion cam­paign and the par­ty’s lead­er­ship.

In the let­ter to Kan­hai, she said: “As a mem­ber of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress I write to raise with you and to get your re­sponse on a mat­ter of ut­most im­por­tance to the par­ty and, by ex­ten­sion our mem­ber­ship.

“In do­ing so I be­lieve it ap­pro­pri­ate to draw your at­ten­tion to Ar­ti­cle 2 (vii) of the Par­ty’s Con­sti­tu­tion (“the Con­sti­tu­tion”) which voic­es the Par­ty’s com­mit­ment ‘To strug­gle against any ten­den­cy to­wards au­thor­i­tar­i­an­ism, au­toc­ra­cy and dic­ta­tor­ship and to pro­mote a vi­able dif­fu­sion of cen­tres of pow­er and de­ci­sion-mak­ing as a check against the con­cen­tra­tion and abuse of pow­er’.”

She added: “I be­lieve it is the above com­mit­ment to the ‘strug­gle against any ten­den­cy to­wards au­thor­i­tar­i­an­ism, au­toc­ra­cy and dic­ta­tor­ship’ that guid­ed the founders of the par­ty to struc­ture gov­er­nance of the par­ty in the way they did and in do­ing so they sought ‘to pro­mote a vi­able dif­fu­sion of cen­tres of pow­er and de­ci­sion mak­ing” where­by:

a) Un­der Ar­ti­cle 18 of the Con­sti­tu­tion the term of the Par­ty’s Na­tion­al Ex­ec­u­tive (“NA­TEX”) is lim­it­ed to two (2) years and the term of the Po­lit­i­cal Leader is lim­it­ed a dif­fer­ent term of three (3) years; and

b) Un­der Ar­ti­cle 12 (A)(iv)(d), which sets up the Par­ty’s Ad­min­is­tra­tive Sec­re­tari­at which in­cludes the Par­ty’s Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary and Pub­lic Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer, the Con­sti­tu­tion man­dates that “...a mem­ber of Par­lia­ment shall not be el­i­gi­ble to be ap­point­ed to an of­fice with­in the Sec­re­tari­at.”

Ram­di­al said: “A num­ber of se­ri­ous con­cerns arise from the above pro­vi­sions of our Con­sti­tu­tion.”

She said these are as fol­lows:

• Though the last elec­tion of of­fi­cers of the NA­TEX was on No­vem­ber 27, 2017, the of­fi­cers elect­ed then, in­clud­ing the chair­man have (ap­par­ent­ly il­le­git­i­mate­ly) held on to of­fice well be­yond two years there­by vi­o­lat­ing the Par­ty’s Con­sti­tu­tion;

• While the par­ty’s Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary, Dave Tan­coo, was elect­ed as a Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment at the Au­gust 10, 2020, gen­er­al elec­tion he has held on to his par­ty of­fice in vi­o­la­tion of the Con­sti­tu­tion;

• While par­ty’s Pub­lic Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer, Ani­ta Haynes, was al­so elect­ed as a Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment at the gen­er­al elec­tion she too has al­so held on to her par­ty of­fice in vi­o­la­tion of the Con­sti­tu­tion.

“It goes with­out say­ing, chair­man, that the above vi­o­la­tions by you, the NA­TEX, the Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary and the Pub­lic Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer do not au­gur well for, and may even re­flect neg­a­tive­ly up­on our par­ty and its of­fi­cers, bear­ing in mind that the par­ty seeks to hold it­self out to the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty as ger­mi­na­tion ground for a gov­ern­ment in wait­ing.

“With the above con­cerns in mind I ask that the Par­ty moves prompt­ly to cor­rect the above vi­o­la­tions of the Con­sti­tu­tion by tak­ing ap­pro­pri­ate ac­tion that can with­stand scruti­ny both with­in the par­ty and in the eyes of all,” Ram­di­al said.

“As I end I be­lieve it ap­pro­pri­ate to state that at all times our col­lec­tive ac­tions must be guid­ed by our Par­ty’s mot­to un­der the Con­sti­tu­tion, name­ly: WE ARE THE FU­TURE.”

Kan­hai and Tan­coo have no re­spond­ed to calls for com­ment.