RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has fi­nal­ly re­spond­ed to Mar­sha Walk­er, the for­mer UNC co­or­di­na­tor of Diego Mar­tin West, who has urged Per­sad-Bisses­sar to step down and not ru­in her great lega­cy. 

Speak­ing to re­porters fol­low­ing the swear­ing-in cer­e­mo­ny of Siparia Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion’s in­au­gur­al May­or, Dood­nath Mayrhoo, Per­sad-Bisses­sar when ques­tioned about Walk­er’s call and her nu­mer­ous posts on so­cial me­dia, thanked her in­stead.

“I feel so sor­ry for (Mar­sha Walk­er) and thank her for wor­ry­ing about my lega­cy. She is very kind. I wish her all the best,” the Op­po­si­tion Leader said.

On the is­sue of her step­ping down, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she was elect­ed as leader of the UNC and she will re­main in that po­si­tion un­til in­ter­nal elec­tions are called.

“She (Walk­er) is free to come and con­test. Our par­ty is a democ­ra­cy and we hold de­mo­c­ra­t­ic elec­tions. This is not like we are play­ing a game of mar­bles and then you pelt away the mar­bles. That’s not how it works. The lead­er­ship is de­mo­c­ra­t­i­cal­ly elect­ed and no elec­tion is due in two or three years. So Mar­sha I wish you good luck,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so not­ed that Walk­er had nev­er brought forth any con­cerns di­rect­ly to her at­ten­tion.

Walk­er claimed that she re­signed over women’s rights is­sues and took her con­cerns to both Per­sad-Bisses­sar and UNC deputy leader Jear­lean John.

In a re­cent Face­book post, Walk­er im­plored Per­sad-Bisses­sar to pass the torch to younger, ded­i­cat­ed mem­bers of the par­ty. 

“The par­ty is full of young, vi­brant, fresh faces, you’ve done well to pick them. It is time to al­low them to take over the reins,” Walk­er wrote.

She added: “I love you Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, I re­al­ly do. I think you have giv­en your en­tire life to this coun­try. I think you served bet­ter than many. I can see you do­ing a tour telling your sto­ry and in­spir­ing oth­ers to serve.”

As Walk­er called on the UNC leader to step down, she added, “I beg you, do not al­low your lega­cy to be ru­ined.”