Political analyst Dr Bishnu Ragoonath says the resignation of the Independent Liberal Party interim chairman Robin Montano reflects badly on the four-month-old party. Montano, who sent his resignation letter to party leader Jack Warner on Tuesday, said he was concerned about certain mistakes made by the party and decisions taken without consultations with the party’s executive.
Contacted for comment yesterday, Warner said he wished Montano “the best in his endeavours.” He said over the past four months, Montano “served the party as chairman, I guess, to the best of his ability.” Warner noted that Montano resigned four days before the ILP’s convention, which would elect new executive officers to run the party’s affairs. Ragoonath said Montano’s resignation would have a negative impact on the party and “shows the party is unable to manage its own internal leadership and reflects badly on the ILP.”
It is the second resignation of an executive member of the party. Earlier this month the chairman of the youth arm, Virmala Balkaran, resigned, claiming the party had “lost its political glow and the novelty and excitement has worn off.” She said attacks on expelled member Faaiq Mohammed, a councillor at the Chaguanas Borough Corporation, were another major reason for her decision to leave the party. Mohammed was expelled from the party because he did not support the party’s choice for Chaguanas mayor.
Ragoonath said those two resignations might cause other members to reconsider their future in the party as they might no longer see the ILP as the vehicle to advance. He said because of the ILP’s performance in the October 21 local government elections and the November 4 St Joseph by-election, members may be looking for another political vehicle because they may no longer have the confidence that the ILP could go forward.
He said members would have to make “hard choices” in the weeks and months ahead. One of the deputy leaders of the party, Lyndira Oudit, said Montano resigned as an executive member but not from the party. In a brief interview yesterday, Oudit said Montano had done yeoman service for the party and was a reasonable and sensible person. She said the ILP was “far, far, far from dead and was here to stay.“
On the contrary, she said, the party was growing, noting that it was opening its Tobago office on Saturday. She said a new interim chairman was expected to be appointed tomorrow during a meeting of the executive. She said the new interim chairman and the other members of the interim executive would be confirmed at the party’s National Convention on Sunday at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya, from 10 am. Oudit said there had been several nominees for the post.
Sunday’s convention would ratify the ILP’s constitution, she said, and the new youth arm chairman Janelle Sebastien would also be ratified.
