00:00A war of words has apparently begun between Naparima MP Rodney Charles and opposition
00:05leader Kamala Prasad Bisesa, the leader of the UNC, on whose ticket Mr. Charles won that
00:10Naparima constituency in the 2015 and 2020 general elections.
00:15On Tuesday, MP Charles issued a statement in which he said to win, in an apparent reference
00:20to the next general election, the UNC needs transparent screening that presents the best
00:25version of itself to the electorate and allows candidates to start working like yesterday.
00:30MP Charles, whose statement says he is retiring from politics, noted that nominations for
00:35these positions in the UNC opened in December 2023 and have been closed since April 2024
00:42as he expressed concern that the delay in progressing to candidate selection is raising
00:47serious concerns.
00:49The outgoing Naparima MP said in reference to the party in government that already the
00:54PNM has selected a number of candidates in a very transparent process where we often
00:59know the views of party groups, the party's leadership, constituency executives and even
01:04constituents.
01:05MP Charles noted that the UNC, by contrast, and presumably in this instance, uses a process
01:11which he described as being entirely dominated by the political leader, shrouded in secrecy
01:17and finalized only on the morning of nomination day.
01:21The opposition leader, Kamloops's predecessor, issued a response to the Naparima MP in which
01:25he said it is laughable that MP Charles has described the PNM candidate selection process
01:31as transparent.
01:32The opposition leader said clearly he is unaware about the angst from the belly of the ballisee
01:37and the outright objection from a former Labour minister over what that member of the PNM
01:43has described as the initial unconstitutional unilateral move to cancel the PNM's internal
01:49election and convention.
01:51Opposition leader Bassad Bassessa said the UNC is the only political party that has held
01:56transparent democratic internal elections when due and also the only party that has
02:01a properly elected and functioning national executive.
02:05The opposition leader further said the PNM and all third parties have not held their
02:10internal executive elections to allow their members a voice in electing their executive
02:15representatives and in most cases the executives of the third parties have been handpicked
02:21by their political leader with no input from their members.
02:25Opposition leader Bassad Bassessa said the UNC's screening process is ongoing and the
02:30nomination booklets are 23 pages long and are very comprehensive.
02:35In his statement, MP Charles is calling on the UNC to finalize its screening process
02:40in a timely manner which promotes greater transparency for the electorate.
02:45The opposition leader said her party has also held multiple meetings with constituency
02:49representatives which is also part of the process as she explained that the in-person
02:54interviews are just another part of the UNC's screening process and are really just to clarify
03:00any questions or discrepancies that may arise from the information submitted in the nomination
03:07book.
03:08The next general election is due in 2025.
03:11Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
Comments