Former United National Congress Member of Parliament for Barataria/San Juan, Dr Fuad Khan, has stated that if he is successful in challenging for the leadership position of the party, he will bring back its founder Basdeo Panday.
“The first thing I would ever do if I become leader is to bring Mr Panday back with me and his daughter Mickela,” Khan said.
Khan did not officially announce whether he will be throwing his hat into the race but lamented the need for structural changes to the internal election system.
During an interview on CNC3’s The Morning Brew on Wednesday, Khan said the current election process was not in accordance with procedural rules.
He said by returning former political leader Panday to the party, there can be greater oversight of detailed internal operations.
Khan said, “Everything about Panday has been ostracised. It would appear that anybody of competence, any woman pretty and competent has to be ostracised and any person who’s worth their sword politically is ostracised.
“So if it is just to say that about the membership, that if you want to go forward, you cannot go forward with the system that is in place that is made up by the administrative people as well as the leader.”
Panday had previously stated that he had no faith in the party’s internal elections and that there needed to be a disconnect from candidates and organisers of the elections.
During a political meeting on Sunday, Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced that the party’s internal elections will be held on June 26.
She said she wanted the elections out of the way in order to prepare for the Local Government Elections.
Khan said yesterday that the time had come for the UNC to begin its rebuilding phase.
Meanwhile, former Couva North MP Ramona Ramdial confirmed she will be contesting the party’s internal elections.
She also reiterated that change was necessary for a free and fair election process.
Ramdial said, “New leadership, new executive, will definitely not have that power to hold on and to have all the manipulations time after time because it hampers the party. The last two years, I’m informed, no new membership took place, she tried to form memberships, she tried to collect membership forms to have persons join the party and we have been totally shut out of that process.”
Ramdial urged the party’s membership to come out and cast their votes so that the desired change could be achieved.