DAREECE POLO
Senior Reporter
dareece.polo@guardian.co.tt
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s next move is crucial, as she must quickly decide if she will capitalise on existing legislation and seek to have the Cumuto/Manzanilla seat declared vacant.
The sentiment was expressed by political scientists Prof Hamid Ghany and Dr Bishnu Ragoonath, who both agreed it was not surprising that MP Dr Rai Ragbir broke ranks and voted in favour of the passage of amendments to the Whistleblower Protection Bill on Friday.
Ghany said Persad-Bissessar has now been forced to possibly invoke Act No 15 of 1978, which could lead to Dr Ragbir’s expulsion.
This was what she promised during an exclusive interview with Guardian Media in March, when she said that would be the consequence should anyone break the party line.
Persad-Bissessar had threatened Mayaro MP Rushton Paray with expulsion from the party if he begins to vote against the party line in Parliament.
Persad-Bissessar, addressing Paray and any other dissidents within the party, said, “Thus far (March), they have not exhibited any divisions in the Parliament, they have voted along the party lines, I don’t know if he is one of those who spoilt their ballots for the election of the President (Christine Kangaloo) but in the Parliament thus far, they have gone along with the line put forward by the (chief) whip.
Contention had been brewing in the UNC, coming to a head during the vote for President in January last year.
Christine Kangaloo won decisively over the UNC’s Israel Khan, SC, by 48 votes to 22 respectively. Khan failed to get all of the UNC’s 25 votes at the meeting of the Electoral College because three of its members failed to toe the party line by either spoiling their ballot or voting for Kangaloo. The trio remains anonymous.
But Persad-Bissessar added during the interview, “The day they should break the party line, the party’s constitution is very clear again on what would be the consequence, they will be expelled from the party.”
In April, the UNC political leader slammed the absence of five opposition MPs from Parliament when the Government was expected to lay the Auditor General’s 2023 report but instead a government motion to extend the period for the Auditor General to examine and report on the finances of T&T was passed.
Prof Ghany added, “There is legislation there. I don’t know if she’s going to invoke it. She certainly invoked it when she was prime minister to have Herbert Volney removed as the MP for St Joseph and the seat was declared vacant (in 2013),” he said.
“I don’t know if the UNC will go that route or if they will just allow things to ride and leave it as it is. What that may telegraph is that, ok, it’s ok to disobey the party line because there are no consequences. So, I don’t know how Mrs Persad-Bissessar and her new national executive will deal with this matter,” he added.
The new national executive team will be sworn in tomorrow.
Short window to declare seat vacant
Prof Ghany explained that there is a short window left to declare a seat vacant as Parliament will go into recess in the first week of July until September, which is when it will be prorogued.
He said after August 29, there can be no by-election.
“It’s a dicey tightrope for the political process in terms of the UNC if they want to force a by-election. One does not know whether Dr Ragbir calculated all of this in advance,” he said.
Dr Ragoonath, meanwhile, said if Persad-Bissessar does not deal with the breaking of ranks within her party, she could pave the way for more dissidents.
Therefore, he suspects that Dr Ragbir will not be chosen to represent the UNC in the upcoming general election.
“There is no way that Mr Rai is going to ever get back a seat to contest the election on behalf of the UNC. Mr Paray and Anita Haynes-Alleyne, still possibly, depending on how they play their cards,” he said.
Dr Ragoonath believes it is unlikely that Dr Ragbir will be expelled since it will only serve to gift the PNM 22 seats out of 40 in the House of Representatives, which has 41 seats, thereby increasing their majority by one. But Dr Ragbir disagrees and tells Guardian Media he expects to be banished from the party.
UNC members on MP’s vote
While some of the UNC’s United Patriot slate said Dr Ragbir had a right to vote on Whistleblower legislation whichever way he chose, a deputy political leader said he only managed to show his PNM petticoat.
Tabaquite MP Anita Haynes-Alleyne, who contested the party’s recent internal elections under the Patriots’ slate, which stood against the Persad-Bissessar-endorsed Star Team, said she was absent from Friday’s parliamentary sitting because she was on medical leave.
Nevertheless, she said she had no qualms about Dr Ragbir’s decision.
“The fact is that he felt the need to vote his conscience and that he could advance a position as to why he felt the need to support the Whistleblower legislation is what we needed to focus on,” she said.
“The internal campaign is over, and we do not need to keep a campaign line going. This question of persons who have a difference of opinion, that they do not belong in the party, is dangerous messaging.”
Paray, who appeared to be the spokesman for the Patriots during the election campaign, said Dr Ragbir was entitled to his view on any matter that affects him, his constituents, and the country.
Asked whether his colleague’s decision to vote against the party line damaged the reputation of the Patriots, which vowed to follow the direction of the chief whip, Paray said he was only speaking for himself when he made that declaration.
“In the Parliament, there is no team Patriots. There is team UNC,” he said.
Moonilal: Those who undermine the UNC will be dealt with appropriately
UNC Deputy Political Leader Dr Moonilal said Dr Ragbir’s behaviour was solely to prove his allegiance to the PNM as his vote was not necessary for the passage of the amendments to the whistleblower legislation.
He warned his colleagues that those who undermine the UNC “will be dealt with appropriately.” He denied that no caucus was held prior to the vote, as was claimed by Dr Ragbir when he justified his action.
In response, Paray echoed Dr Ragbir’s sentiment that he was not invited to any UNC caucus. Five members of the UNC, some of whom formed the United Patriots, were branded dissidents by the opposition leader. They were named after failing to be present in the Lower House on April 26 when a vote took place to grant an extension for the Auditor General’s Report.
Missing from the House were Haynes-Alleyne, who requested leave, Dr Ragbir, Paray, Naparima MP Rodney Charles, and Chaguanas West MP Dinesh Rambally. Charles and Rambally did not contest the party’s internal elections.