Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

No one has stepped for­ward to chal­lenge Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar for the post of UNC po­lit­i­cal leader as the par­ty gets set to hold its lead­er­ship elec­tion on Au­gust 17.

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress gen­er­al sec­re­tary Pe­ter Kan­hai an­nounced the date for the in­ter­nal elec­tion in a four-line re­lease around 8.44 pm on Mon­day. This fol­lowed a UNC Na­tion­al Ex­ec­u­tive meet­ing.

Sev­er­al UNC MPs, con­stituen­cies and oth­er par­ty of­fi­cials have al­ready come out in sup­port of Per­sad-Bisses­sar to con­tin­ue lead­ing the par­ty since she an­nounced in Pe­nal a week ago that the in­ter­nal elec­tion would be held. She had chal­lenged peo­ple who want­ed the post to come for­ward and con­test.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar has been the UNC’s po­lit­i­cal leader since 2010 when she oust­ed founder Bas­deo Pan­day in the par­ty’s elec­tions that year. Per­sad-Bisses­sar went on to lead the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship coali­tion to vic­to­ry over the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment that year.

Fol­low­ing the UNC’s de­feat by the PNM in the 2015 na­tion­al poll, Per­sad-Bisses­sar has been chal­lenged for the post by sev­er­al peo­ple in sub­se­quent UNC in­ter­nal elec­tions. She’s de­feat­ed them all: UNC deputy leader Dr Roodal Mooni­lal, and for­mer min­is­ters Vas­ant Bharath, Chris­tine Newal­lo-Ho­sein and Dr Fuad Khan.

In the most re­cent lead­er­ship elec­tion in 2022, Per­sad-Bisses­sar ob­tained 11,554 votes to Khan’s 647 votes in a low vot­er turnout. She be­came Prime Min­is­ter again fol­low­ing the April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

Last Thurs­day, Mooni­lal con­firmed his sup­port for Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

Mean­while, de­feat­ed lead­er­ship as­pi­rant Dr Fuad Khan said the elec­tion will in­form Per­sad-Bisses­sar of who re­al­ly sup­ports her in the par­ty.

“There will ob­vi­ous­ly be no chal­lenger. The on­ly thing that makes sense in hav­ing the elec­tion for po­lit­i­cal leader is that maybe Kam­la can see who vot­ed for her.”