Jack tipped to head Alliance 
Who’s in charge? Warner offered UNC Alliance leadership.
Panday, however to remain as UNC leader.
Alliance partners decide Thursday.
BY GAIL ALEXANDER
UNC deputy leader Jack Warner
UNC deputy leader Jack Warner is being proposed to lead the UNC Alliance, following Wednesday’s UNC executive meeting where the helming issue was discussed, sources said yesterday.
Warner’s name has become a front runner for the leadership of the new entity in a move which is already sparking heated debate in the UNC among supporters of Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
Her name has also come up in discussions on the post.
Under the proposal, Warner is being considered for the post of UNC Alliance leader in an arrangement that will include having UNC leader Basdeo Panday remaining leader of the UNC until his interim period ends.
The parties in the Alliance have all maintained their individuality and respective leaders.
The UNC executive’s meeting on Wednesday was held to recommend a person for the post of UNC Alliance leader.
This recommendation will then be presented to the UNC Alliance Leadership Council of Partners which meets on Thursday to finalise a leader for the Alliance.
Warner, en route to China yesterday, was saying neither “yea” nor “nay” on the matter of the post.
Asked about reports in the UNC that he was offered the Alliance leadership, Warner said: “I, too, have heard about it but I have not been advised.
“But if it does happen, I remain humbled by the offer... When I return, I’ll know more about the situation,” he added.
Asked if he would consider the offer, Warner said: “There are several considerations I’d have to make... I will raise the matter at Fifa this weekend and I will then have a better idea of my position.”
Declining to give a direction on his future decision, Warner added: “If decisions are ahead and I have to decide if to give up Fifa completely or have the situation truncated, whatever I decide will be decided in the interest of T&T.”
Warner is going to China to attend a function hosted by the Chinese government, involving the Association of World Women’s Championships. He returns by next Thursday.
Panday, in Ft Lauderdale for a UNC fund-raiser, said yesterday that no decision had been taken on the leadership.
“We have always been discussing the question of leadership for a long time since before the Alliance, but no decision has been made,” he said.
“However, the issue of leadership will come up... It is bound to come up, but I can’t say when.”
Panday returns by the middle of next week.
‘Panday offered Warner the post’
Top level UNC sources said Warner was approached by Panday recently to assume the post of Alliance leader.
Persad-Bissessar, who is also going to the Florida fund-raiser, did not attend Parliament yesterday. She is to return on Tuesday.
UNC chief whip Hamza Rafeeq said he had been hearing rumours on the matter, but added there was nothing official on the leadership issue.
Members of UNC executive confirmed that Wednesday’s executive meeting focused on who should be recommended as leader of the UNC Alliance to take the “party of parties” into the general election.
If the Alliance won election, that person would become Prime Minister, they said.
Sources said debate on the issue of leadership of the UNC Alliance focused on the pros and cons of having Warner as leader, as well discussing support for Persad-Bissessar for the post.
Warner who was present at the meeting left early.
Persad-Bissessar arrived late for the meeting as debate on the proposal for Warner was in progress.
The move to appoint a UNC Alliance leader comes on the heels of attempts by UNC financiers to have Panday step aside.
He was recently broached by top party financiers to do so, while he was abroad.
A source said that the incoming Alliance leader could possibly seek to forge an alliance with the COP.
Ganga: COP not joining Alliance
COP Chief whip Ganga Singh yesterday emphatically rejected the idea of COP joining with the UNC or the UNC Alliance “with Jack at the helm, or Kamla, or with or without Panday.”
“We are not joining that entity with or without Panday, or in any form or fashion,” he said.
“They intend to appoint an Alliance leader and keep Panday as UNC leader... What is that? “Panday is not relinquishing leadership, whether is dulahin or the dulaha leading... It doesn’t matter.
COP is out of that... Panday and his proxies are irrelevant since the UNC Alliance doesn’t carry the politics forward.”
Alliance partners eye Jack and Kamla
NDA leader Carson Charles, one of the UNC Alliance partners, said all the groups in the Alliance are expected to meet among themselves and return to the table with recommendations for a leader to be finalised at a council meeting next Thursday.
“Each member of the Leadership Council will be considered by each group and we intend to do it in a dispassionate way—examining the advantages and disadvantages of each person on the leadership council being elevated to the leadership of the Alliance,” he said.
“Each has obvious advantages and disadvantages.
“However, each party will remain with its own structures and party intact after we decide on an Alliance leader.”
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