The 2020United National Congress leadership election was held on Sunday, 6 December 2020,[1] after Opposition LeaderKamla Persad-Bissessar, the current leader of the UNC, faced losses commencing in January 2013 with the wipeout of her People's Partnership-led administration from the Tobago House of Assembly at the 2013 election, loss in the 2015 Trinidad and Tobago general election and loss in the 2020 Trinidad and Tobago general election.[8][9] The candidates for political leader were incumbent Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Team Star against former member of parliament for St. Augustine and former Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment in the People's Partnership's government, Vasant Bharath, on Team Lotus. Former senator and Minister of Transport in the People's Partnership's government, Devant Maharaj, was an early candidate for political leader, but was never formally nominated as he dropped out on nomination day on the 15th of November 2020, citing irregularities in the voting process. He endorsed Vasant Bharath and Team Lotus.[10][11][12] Kamla Persad-Bissessar won with of 87.15% of the votes, while Vasant Bharath got 12.85% of the votes.[3]
Kamla Persad-Bissessar won with a sweeping victory of 87.15% of the votes, while Vasant Bharath got 12.85% of the votes.[3] On election night, Persad-Bissessar said her Team Star was on the path to defeat Bharath's Team Lotus. She called for unity within the party and said their main political opponent was the People's National Movement. She claimed under her continued leadership that she would work to make the party more united and stronger. She also acknowledged that there was some reports of elections issues, but that overall everything had gone well. Persad-Bissessar said that the low voter turnout was due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as it was in the general election.[19] Bharath conceded shortly after midnight and congratulated Persad-Bissessar and wished her success. He also stated the party needs to determine the reason for the low voter turnout then they need to "inspire their ground troops" to win the next general election. Bharath stated that he was willing to work with Persad-Bissessar to help rebuild the party. However, he mentioned that there were irregularities in the election which he had warned about and many were unable to vote. He said that active campaigner on Persad-Bissessar's team were presiding officers, his team was not granted access to a revised list of electors, that there were reports of voters being verbally abused and intimidated, there was paraphernalia of the Star Team being distributed at some precincts, and that his father John Bharath, a founding member of the UNC, was not on the voting list and that there were other people who were not on the revised voter list who were allowed to vote.[20][21]Devant Maharaj, who dropped out of the election before nomination day and supported Bharath, called on Persad-Bissessar to embrace all and rebuild the party.[20] The election had the lowest voter turnout for an UNC leadership election with only 17,066 members out of 120,000+ members coming out to vote. This follows after the last leadership election in 2017 was recorded to have the lowest voter turnout.[2]
Founder of the party, Basdeo Panday, commented before the election that the UNC had no future under the leadership of Kamla Persad-Bissessar nor Vassant Bharath and would eventually die out.[22] He reiterated again after the election results that the UNC would die, pointing that it had the lowest voter turn out for an UNC leadership election and says that the COVID-19 pandemic had nothing to do with it as the last leadership election was the same. He further said that Kamla Persad-Bissessar killed the party "beyond repair" and that the only way to end the "tribal politics" was for a new party to be formed.[2] However, political analyst Mukesh Basdeo disagreed with Panday, saying that the party still got a significant number of votes despite the COVID-19 pandemic and that, had the election been held in other conditions, it would have shown a decline in the interest of the party. He also stated that the pandemic deterred people from coming out to vote. He noted that smaller third parties were crushed in the 2020 general election and that most of the votes went to the two major parties, the UNC and the PNM.[2]
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