Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Cu­mo­to/Man­zanil­la Dr Rai Rag­bir has re­vealed that he will not be par­tic­i­pat­ing in the UNC's screen­ing process to con­test the next gen­er­al elec­tion.

" It is with deep dis­ap­point­ment that I an­nounce I will not par­tic­i­pate in the UNC’s screen­ing process for re-elec­tion as the Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Cu­mu­to/ Man­zanil­la. Af­ter care­ful re­flec­tion, I can no longer align my­self with a par­ty that has aban­doned its prin­ci­ples, re­wards medi­oc­rity, shields those ac­cused of wrong­do­ing and pun­ish­es in­tegri­ty.

I refuse to sub­mit my­self to a screen­ing com­mit­tee that in­cludes in­di­vid­u­als cur­rent­ly charged with wrong­do­ing, em­broiled in court cas­es in­volv­ing mis­man­age­ment of pub­lic funds at the EM­BD, al­leged­ly linked to gang ac­tiv­i­ty and even one in­di­vid­ual who has se­ri­ous al­le­ga­tions of hu­man traf­fick­ing to an­swer," he said in a state­ment.