CARIBBEAN TODAY


P 0 1 I T I C S


Panday returns as UNC chairman in T & T


PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad,
CMC The main Opposition
United National Congress
(UNC) says its former leader
Basdeo Panday had resumed
the post of chairman, less
than a five months after
he announced his resig-
nation from active poli-
tics.
 The move by the
UNC, taken at an emer-
gency executive meeting
last month,
followed the decisions by
the party's embattled
political leader, Winston
Dookeran,
to form his own
Congress of the People
party.
 Panday told
reporters
that one of his immedi-
ate tasks would be to
write to Panday
the party's membership
as well as those who had
helped form the party to
return to the UNC. He said
the executive had also agreed
that the Leadership Council
would continue to direct the
party until a leader is chosen.


PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC -
Foreign Minister Knowlson Gift
resigned with "immediate effect" from
the Trinidad and Tobago government,
according to a statement issued by the
Office of the Prime Minister late last
month.
 The statement gave no reason for
the sudden resignation, but said that
Prime Minister Patrick Manning
"accepted Mr. Gift's resignation and in
so doing, has expressed his gratitude
for the loyal service rendered by Mr.
Gift during his tenure as Minister of
Foreign Affairs".
 "The Prime Minister also wished
Mr. Gift well in all his future endeav-
ours", the statement added.
 Gift, 71, became minister of
foreign affairs in 2001 after Manning
was named prime minister by then
President Arthur NR Robinson fol-
lowing the collapse of the Basdeo
Panday administration. He held on to
the post after the People's National


He did not rule out of the pos-
sibility of his former Attorney
General Ramesh Lawrence
Maharaj, whose criticism led
to the downfall of the Panday


government in 2001, being
part of the Council.
 "I have decided to resume
the chairmanship of the party.
This is in response to requests
from the people and the party
who have supported us,"


Panday told reporters.
 Panday had relinquished
leadership of
the party
soon after he
was convict-
ed
in a
Magistrates'
Court on N
three
charges of
failing to
declare to
the Integrity
Commission,
a bank
account he
and his wife,
Oma, held in
London dur-
ing the peri-
od he served
as prime
minister.
Panday was
sentenced to
two years
imprison- .
ment on Z .
each of the
charges to ON NOV
run concur-
rently, but FURTHE


ADJACE


Gift
Movement (PNM) won the Oct. 2002
general elections.
0


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T&T's foreign minister resigns


October 2006