By Sharlene Rampersad From T&T Guardian

Attorney Rekha Ramjit has been elected as the new political leader of the Independent Liberal Party (ILP).

The party held elections yesterday, with seven polling stations across T&T, to select a new leader following the resignation of party founder Jack Warner last month.

The Sunday Guardian spoke to chairman of the party’s elections committee, Amarnath Jagessar, yesterday, after the ballots were counted.

Rekha Ramjit got 262 votes and her opponent, Simeon Mahabir, got 85 votes, said Jagessar.

Shortly before 6 pm yesterday, Jagessar said the party’s Chaguanas office was quiet and there were no celebrations taking place.

“We are not having anything in Chaguanas, I don’t know if she is having anything anywhere else.”

Earlier in the day, when Ramjit visited the San Fernando polling station to cast her vote, she told reporters she expected about 2,000 people to turn out for the elections.

“Turnout for internal elections are always extremely low. If we get about 2,000 we will be very happy having regard to the fact that just 6,000 people voted for the ILP in the last election,” Ramjit said. “The registered list is 37,000 but obviously all our members did not vote.”

She also outlined the future of the party, which failed to capture any seats in the recently concluded general election.

“We are waiting for this event (election) to be over so that we could start to build on whatever foundation we have for the ILP because we know that local government elections are due next year, so we want to get in preparation mode for that.”

Warner also visited all the polling stations yesterday, speaking to journalists briefly in San Fernando, to say that the voting process was going well.

Party’s general secretary resigns

Meanwhile, the party’s general secretary Indra Maraj tendered her resignation yesterday.

In her letter addressed to Jack Warner, she expressed her gratitude to him for displaying confidence in her over the last two years and since 2006.

In a brief statement, Maraj said she was proud that the party continued to share “our mission to break the mould of partisan interests with an electorate which regretfully votes along racial lines.”

IMAGE: Rekha Ramjit

For more on this story go to; http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2015-10-11/rekha-ramjit-new-ilp-leader