By SEAN DOUGLAS Wednesday, October 28 2009

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DOZE OFF?: Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday during his address at the UNC's Monday Night Forum at the Aranjuez Community Centre. ...

OPPOSITION Leader Basdeo Panday called for national elections to be held by proportional representation as he recalled that in 2007, it was unfair that despite winning so many votes, the Congress of the People (COP) had won no seat in Parliament.

He made the point at the UNC Monday Night Forum at Aranjuez Community Centre.

“The COP got 140,000 votes but didn’t get a seat. All the people who voted COP wasted their vote. They are disenfranchised. That is wrong,” Panday said.

He said that a voting-system based on proportional representation would have given the COP some seats. Panday said that any party winning about ten percent of all votes cast, should be awarded ten percent of seats in Parliament.

Saying that Minister of National Security Martin Joseph has a hide as thick as a crocodile, as he faces weekly criticisms in Parliament on the level of crime, Panday said Joseph wouldn’t be able to stop crime without the country first having constitutional reform.

He supported a new constitution based on an Executive President being directly elected by the population — in contrast to Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s view that the political party winning a general elections would select an Executive President.

Panday scoffed at Manning’s recent claim that the post of Executive President held no attraction for him, saying this was as ridiculous as a chicken saying he isn’t interested in corn. Panday wanted the country’s purse-strings to be controlled by a unicameral Parliament, more independent of the Executive than at present.

Calling for the abolition of the Senate, Panday said, “If those fellows like Parliament so much, go and get elected”. Softening his words as he saw UNC Senator Mohammed Faisal Rahman, Panday added: “I’m sure Mr Rahman will win his seat”.

Panday called on the UNC and COP to unite, saying their combined share of votes in the 2007 general elections exceeded that of the PNM.

“We’ve been trying to have unity a long time. We’ve been talking to the leaders, but it’s not bearing fruit. The leaders — for reasons best know to them — do not want to unite”