[1][2] On January 24, 2010, Kamla Persad-Bissessar was elected political leader of the UNC, emerging victorious over the party's founder, Basdeo Panday.
His resignation triggered a by-election in the Chaguanas-West constituency which he won three months later on July 29, 2013, under his newly formed Independent Liberal Party.
On July 30, 2013, Member of Parliament for St. Joseph, Herbert Volney resigned as Minister of Justice and the UNC party due to the "Section 34" fallout.
Allegations were also raised on May 20, 2013 known as the "Emailgate"[11] scandal regarding a criminal conspiracy in September 2012 against Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard, as well as a plot to harm and discredit a newspaper reporter Denyse Renne, and the payment of monies in exchange for freedom by an unnamed person.
Then Opposition leader, Dr Rowley read a thread of 31 email messages in the Parliament purporting to be a conversation between four people, whose email accounts were similar to those of the then Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Attorney General Anand Ramlogan, National Security advisor Gary Griffith, and Works and Infrastructure Minister Suruj Rambachan.