BAVI­TA GOPAULCHAN

Se­nior Re­porter

bavi­ta.gopaulchan

@guardian.co.tt

Ch­agua­nas West is not con­sid­ered a mar­gin­al seat but there could be a show­down in the con­stituen­cy in the up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion, as Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly is clear he is not back­ing down as MP.

This af­ter for­mer UNC MP Jack Warn­er on Wednes­day sig­nalled his will­ing­ness to re-en­ter the po­lit­i­cal ring and con­test a seat, once UNC po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar gives him the green light.

Warn­er was the pre­vi­ous Ch­agua­nas West MP un­der the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship gov­ern­ment. But in­cum­bent Ram­bal­ly is not ready to give up his seat.

“I went abroad to study, but I spent most of my life here in Ch­agua­nas West. I know the peo­ple, the peo­ple know me, so my blood is here.

“I am a son tru­ly of this soil and if I have to do any­thing, I re­al­ly would want to make sure that what I am do­ing is con­sis­tent with what I have al­ways been in this com­mu­ni­ty and what I rep­re­sent now,” Ram­bal­ly said in an in­ter­view at his con­stituen­cy of­fice along Munroe Road, Cunu­pia.

Ram­bal­ly ad­mit­ted that he had al­ready thrown his hat in the ring. Whether he will be se­lect­ed as the UNC can­di­date is yet to be con­firmed, as Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­mains tight-lipped.

On the prospect of Warn­er pos­si­bly be­ing cho­sen again in Ch­agua­nas West, giv­en that Ram­bal­ly is now con­sid­ered one of the UNC “dis­si­dents” and could be over­looked, Ram­bal­ly said, “If Mr Jack Warn­er is run­ning for Ch­agua­nas West it just might tempt me to run too.”

He added, “We just might have some fun too in cam­paign­ing against each oth­er for Ch­agua­nas West. I have no doubt it will be cor­dial. I have nev­er thought about that but I think you have re­al­ly spiced it up with that ques­tion”.

Ram­bal­ly, a lawyer for more than 19 years and the MP since 2020, not­ed that he will not run for elec­tions un­der the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment but will opt to do so on “an­oth­er tick­et” if it comes to that.

Ram­bal­ly had fall­en out of sorts with Per­sad-Bisses­sar af­ter pub­licly rais­ing con­cerns about her lead­er­ship in the lead-up to the par­ty’s in­ter­nal elec­tions in June. He not­ed yes­ter­day that he stands by “prin­ci­ples” and con­tin­ues his call for a change in the lead­er­ship.

“I want to see a re­turn to in­tegri­ty and prin­ci­ples and moral­i­ty and I want to see us put our best team for­ward against the PNM. It is not a nice feel­ing that these peo­ple are so in­com­pe­tent and in­ept; they can­not get the job done; run­ning this coun­try down to the ground; crime is out of con­trol,” he lament­ed.   

Res­i­dents: We wel­come Jack back

But while Ram­bal­ly has ex­pressed his hope to be re-elect­ed as MP, sev­er­al Ch­agua­nas West con­stituents are hope­ful that Warn­er will be se­lect­ed as the can­di­date.

Guardian Me­dia spoke to res­i­dents from Munroe Road, Char­lieville, Pierre Road, Ch­agua­nas and en­vi­rons yes­ter­day.

Resh­ma Jag­ger­nauth said, “If Mr Jack Warn­er is re­al­ly go­ing up as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive for this area, I will be most hap­py.”

“What he has done for Ch­agua­nas West he will def­i­nite­ly win once he goes back up,” an­oth­er res­i­dent who want­ed to be iden­ti­fied on­ly as “Swag­gy” said.

“If he wish­es to come back then we wel­come him,” Mo­han Babueial ex­pressed.

Oth­ers re­called how Warn­er helped their com­mu­ni­ties.

Warn­er rep­re­sent­ed Ch­agua­nas West from 2007 to 2013. He ini­tial­ly won the seat in the 2010 Gen­er­al Elec­tion, serv­ing un­til his de­par­ture from the UNC amid fraud and oth­er al­le­ga­tions stem­ming from his tenure as FI­FA vice pres­i­dent. Af­ter his res­ig­na­tion, he con­tin­ued to hold the seat un­der the In­de­pen­dent Lib­er­al Par­ty ban­ner, as its po­lit­i­cal leader, un­til the 2015 Gen­er­al Elec­tion when he did not seek re-elec­tion.

On Wednes­day, while speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, Warn­er backed Per­sad-Bisses­sar as the po­lit­i­cal leader. He said there was no one else com­pe­tent to lead the par­ty to vic­to­ry.

While Ram­bal­ly does not agree with Warn­er on this, he did ad­mit to be­ing heart­ened by his faith in his po­lit­i­cal ca­reer, ad­mit­ting that they spoke “of­ten” and that he has “a tremen­dous amount of re­spect” for him.

Ram­bal­ly re­called, “Mr Warn­er in 2012 in­to 2013 made some very se­ri­ous state­ments. If peo­ple felt like I have made some state­ments in April of this year I think they have to re­vis­it what Jack Warn­er said on and off po­lit­i­cal cam­paign trails”.

There was a war of words be­tween Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Warn­er af­ter he was forced to re­sign from the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship gov­ern­ment amid FI­FA cor­rup­tion al­le­ga­tions in 2015.

Con­tact­ed on the prospect of Warn­er’s re­turn to the par­ty yes­ter­day, UNC chair­man Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo said he was heart­ened by Warn­er’s will­ing­ness to con­test a seat but re­mind­ed that there is a process that must be fol­lowed be­fore any can­di­date is se­lect­ed.

“As a dis­ci­plined struc­tured par­ty, we have a for­mal process which is well known for can­di­date se­lec­tion in­clud­ing com­ple­tion of a nom­i­na­tion form, as­sess­ment, con­sul­ta­tion and screen­ing which is open to all mem­bers,” Tan­coo stat­ed.

Ef­forts to con­tact Per­sad-Bisses­sar on the is­sue were un­suc­cess­ful.