Объединенный национальный конгресс Тринидада и Тобаго: История и современность.

The United National Congress ( UNC or UNCTT) is one of two major political parties in Trinidad and Tobago and the current parliamentary opposition. The UNC is a centre left party. It was founded in 1989 by Basdeo Panday, a Trinidadian lawyer, economist, trade unionist, and actor after a split in the ruling National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR). After spending six years in opposition, the UNC won control of the government in 1995, initially in coalition with the NAR and later on its own. In the 2000 general election, the UNC won an absolute majority in the Parliament. In 2001, a split in the party caused the UNC to lose its parliamentary majority and control of the government. From 2001 to 2010, the UNC was once again Parliamentary Opposition party. In May 2010, the UNC returned to government as the majority party in the People's Partnership. The UNC's Political Leader, Kamla Persad Bissessar, was sworn in as the first female Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. Kamla Persad Bissessar was Prime Minister from 2010 until 2015. The party symbol is the sun rising above the Trinity Hills. Historically, the UNC has been supported by a majority of Indo Trinidadians and Tobagonians, especially Hindu Indo Trinidadian and Tobagonians, thus it is colloquially called the Indian Party or the Hindu Party. The Spiritual Baptist and other racial and religious minorities of the country also support the party. In opposition since the 2015 general election, the party holds 19 out of 41 Members of Parliament in the House of Representatives and 6 out of 31 members of the Senate, as mandated by the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago to the official parliamentary opposition. The party has 67 out of the 139 local councillors and is in control of 7 of the 14 regional corporations since the 2019 Trinidadian local elections. The party has no representation in the Tobago House of Assembly. As of December 2020, the UNC has 120,000+ registered members. As a result of negotiations between the two, Dookeran was nominated unopposed for the post of Political Leader and Panday was nominated unopposed for the party Chairmanship. However, both fielded rival slates for the remaining 16 executive posts. On 2 October, Panday's slate won 12 of the posts including two of the three deputy leader positions and, after a recount, the vice chairmanship. Dookeran's slate won the 4 remaining posts. Members of Dookeran's slate called for Panday's resignation as Leader of the Opposition. Gerald Yetming, MP for St. Joseph, joined the Opposition backbenches in protest of Panday's refusal to relinquish his position. In February 2006, Panday announced that he had reconciled with Maharaj, who marked his return to the party by speaking at a party rally held at Mid Centre Mall in Chaguanas on 19 February. At that rally, Dookeran criticized his party for accepting Maharaj's return and was booed by the crowd. On 8 March 2006, Yetming announced he was formally leaving the UNC and would serve out his term as an independent. His chief reason was the return of Maharaj to the UNC, a move which he opposed. As internal wranglings continued in the party, it appeared that a rift between Dookeran and the Executive was deepening. Newspaper accounts indicated that pro Panday executives and Dookeran were largely functioning independently of each other. Dookeran also suffered a loss of support as Deputy Leader Jack Warner and Roodal Moonilal, MP for Oropouche, announced their support of Panday. In March, Senator Robin Montano's Senate appointment was revoked by Panday. Montano had supported Dookeran and opposed the return of Maharaj to the UNC. On 24 April, Panday was convicted of fraud for failing to disclose a bank account under the rules of the Integrity Act. He was sentenced to 2 years hard labour. At the UNC rally held that night Dookeran was not permitted to speak on the platform. Maharaj, however was seated centre stage at that rally. On 25 April, Panday's appointment as Opposition Leader was revoked by President George Maxwell Richards. In a surprise move the next day, seven UNC MPs announced their support of Deputy Political Leader Kamla Persad Bissessar as the new Opposition Leader. Persad Bissessar was appointed Opposition Leader the following day but stated that she would step aside should Panday's appeal prove successful. The Courts released Panday on bail on Friday 28 April, on the ground of his medical ailments. Following his release on bail, he tendered his resignation as chairman of the party on 1 May 2006. The UNC executive did not immediately accept his resignation.

In the months following, infighting in the UNC increased. Dookeran and the party Executive were entrenched in opposing positions. Dookeran organised his own political apparatus and held political meetings without the Executive's consent. He also ceased to attend Executive meetings and his few allies on the Executive were removed. Persad Bissessar also replaced Dookeran's supporters in the appointed Senate. Amidst the infighting, Panday returned to active politics in August 2006 and attempted to publicly broker a reconciliation between the two factions. This proved fruitless. Many, including Panday's supporters, privately held the view that Panday was working behind the scenes to undermine Dookeran's support within the Executive. Dookeran, who was seen as the legitimate Political Leader of the UNC, was unable to exercise the full powers granted to him in the Party's Constitution. However, Dookeran's call for internal change within the UNC was negatively viewed by some of the party's 'old guards' who felt their position threatened. Panday loyalists organised themselves into a five member Leadership Council, composed of the three Deputy Leaders (Persad Bissessar, Wade Mark, and Jack Warner), the Party CEO Tim Gopeesingh, and the newly returned Maharaj. Panday was said to have been appointed as an advisor to the council. On 10 September at a large rally, Dookeran announced his resignation as UNC Political Leader and the formation of a new party: the Congress of the People. On 11 September, Panday resumed the Chairmanship of the party, and on 3 January 2007, Panday was reinstated as Political Leader of the party.

In the 5 November 2007 general election, the party won 29.73% of the popular vote and 15 out of 41 seats.

On 24 January 2010, Kamla Persad Bissessar, member of parliament for Siparia, was elected the new leader of the UNC. In the internal election, she won 13,932 votes compared to 1,359 for Basdeo Panday and 1,072 for Ramesh Maharaj and became the first female leader of a major political party in Trinidad and Tobago.

Based on a campaign of change against the PNM, the UNC was successful in the 2010 general election, and Persad Bissessar was appointed as the first ever female Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. The UNC won a majority of 21 seats. Their coalition controlled 29 seats in total; the Congress of the People won 6 seats and the Tobago Organization of the People won Tobago's only 2 seats. After the election, the coalition showed signs of weakening. The Movement for Social Justice, which did not win any seats in the election, left the coalition due to discontent with the running of the government. The Tobago Organization of the People failed to win a single seat in the 2013 Tobago House of Assembly elections. During 2013, the UNC lost 2 seats in by elections in St. Joseph and Chaguanas West.

An internal party election was held on 5 December 2015, which Kamla Persad Bissessar won as political leader of the party against Roodal Moonilal and Vasant Bharath. Controversy arose when ballots in favor of Roodal Moonilal were found near a river and at the back of a school used as a polling station. The ballots were left out in the open with no visible attempts to destroy or hide them. Some names were found twice on the voting list, which may have allowed one individual to vote twice. Moonilal filed a complaint for these issues to be rectified, however Kamla Persad Bissessar was declared the winner.

In the 2017 internal elections Kamla Persad Bissessar won virtually all of the votes to continue as political leader of the party against Chanda Bhaggan and Christine Newallo Hosein. The voter turnout was the lowest recorded in an internal election for the UNC at the time.

ElectionLeaderVotesSeatsPositionGovernmentNo.%±No.±2001Basdeo Panday1,7577.8—3rd

PositionOfficeholderPolitical LeaderKamla Persad BissessarDeputy Political Leaders ChairmanDavendranath TancooVice ChairwomanKhadijah AmeenGeneral SecretaryPeter KanhaiPolicy and Strategy OfficerSean S. SobersEducation Officer Vandana MohitResearch OfficerSaddam HoseinElections OfficerDon T. SylvesterTreasurerNeil GosineParty OrganizerRavi RatiramInternational Relations OfficerWilfred Nicholas MorrisNortheast Regional RepresentativeAnil RobertsSouth Regional RepresentativeShanty BoodramNorthwest Regional RepresentativeEli A. ZakourCentral Regional RepresentativeBarry PadarathTobago Regional RepresentativeTaharqa ObikaYouth Arm ChairmanDaniel RasheedWomen's Arm ChairwomanKenya CharlesPublic Relations OfficerKirk MeighooSocial Media ManagerWilliam ArchieLegal OfficerBrian Baig