Why Kamla Won & Vasant Lost
On December 8, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar swatted aside a challenge for leadership at the internal United National Congress elections from former MP Vasant Bharath with a landslide victory. Bharath who got 2,362 votes to KPB’s 14,833 claims serious election irregularities which the party’s former chairman Peter Kanhai refutes.
This is the conversation I knitted together after interviewing them both which should interest us all since a well-functioning opposition that holds the Government to account, supports policy in the country’s interest, and sets standards for supporters is the lifeblood of every democracy VB: KPB won due to a natural advantage which she leveraged.
KBP has a captive base of about 15,000 people who, fed a narrative for ten years that Kamla and the UNC is one, has led to an ultimate leader rather than an ultimate party. So it’s Kamla 2010, 2015, 2020, 2025.
PK: Under KPB the UNC membership has grown by 300 per cent. In 2010 when KPB became leader, the UNC’s membership was 20,000. By 2015 it shot up to 80,000 and now has 140,000 members. The indictment is on Bharath. If KBP commands the support of thousands, I can’t see how anyone can fault her. The UNC under KPB is on the ground assisting people in need in every constituency, be it from flooding or COVID-19.
VB: KPB has an infrastructure in place. All 19 MPs (handpicked by and loyal to her) have 200 food cards, hampers, grants, and CEPEP jobs at their disposal. That’s some 3,800 families and 10,000 votes. Add 60 councillors with food cards which guarantee 15,000 voters. In meetings I held in 19 constituencies, the sentiment was the same–threats of victimisation if they support anyone who challenges her, and complete abandonment after elections.
KPB was canvassing the UNC membership with email, text and post, and phone calls telling voters she ‘loves’ them. You can do that only with full information on each member. That same list was altered and given to me without addresses so it was worthless and impossible to canvass. On election day several presiding officers allowed people who were not on the list to vote and prevented others, including my father, from voting, saying their names were not on the list. Those that voted were directed by election officers who openly endorsed KPB to ‘put your x by the Star’.
PK: The UNC has an electoral process that Mr Bharath himself has been through as this is his third election. Mrs KPB is a member of the screening committee, but it’s wrong to say she personally appointed MPs and demands loyalty. I am not aware of councillors or MPs using food cards to entice anyone, given they barely get resources from ministries. As for Bharath’s claims of irregularities on December 8, the election committee would have done due diligence and appointed presiding officers in polling stations to ensure transparency for both slates and will present its report. Just as in national elections, there were some people whose names weren’t on the list but we need to await the election committee’s report to the new executive of the party for full disclosure.
VB: KPB’s loyalists divide and dice UNC members with caste and class, or ‘knife and fork’ Indians against others. We had the opportunity twice, to be a national party in ‘86 and 2010 with a significant constitutional majority and we blew it, lost the trust of the population. We should be blaming ourselves for not fixing mistakes. When KPB lost the second time, it’s everyone else’s fault other than hers, and she will pass on the victim syndrome to followers who will not see themselves participate in democracy.
PK: In the recent general election under KPB, the UNC got 19 seats out of 41, with 309,000 votes and was two seats from forming the government, so it’s a national party VB: I am rolling up my sleeves and will be out again in 2023 to do the work as I genuinely want to help people of this country. I don’t want to live in a cage, a nation divided by a few haves who are forever protecting themselves against the many who don’t have. We must convince and educate UNC party supporters to show how good governance improves the quality of life of all.
PK: The party’s voice is strong, and people are represented. Vasant Bharath is not connecting to the membership within the party. The truth, as always in politics, hovers somewhere in between.