Dookeran to quit COP: Sources

The Congress of the People is looking for a new leader and the party is not going to contest the Local Government elections in 2008, according to highly placed political sources.

The sources tell say that COP Political Leader Winston Dookeran will not be leading the party into the next general election and will lead the party only for part of 2008.

The sources say he will be taking up a teaching position in Canada or the United States, offers he had declined before the formation of the party.

The leadership is expected to be a hotly contested one with Deputy Leader Wendy Lue Yuen using all her influence to get the job. But party insiders say she has no real following in the executive or among the membership.

The sources say the party is on the verge of disbanding because it is bankrupt and many of its key players such as Campaign 2007 Chairman Gerry Yetming, Chairman Roy Augustus and Communications Expert Roy Boyke are leaving.

The sources say many candidates blame the trio for "misleading the party". They have demanded an explanation from Yetming about a meeting he held the week before the elections with PNM head honchos John Rahael and John Donaldson.

The sources and other COP insiders say there is a secret move among some members to seek reconciliation with the UNC alliance.

And they are looking to UNC Deputy Political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar as one of the people to open doors.

Last Friday Bissessar told a public meeting in Couva (see story: Kamla calls for Unity) that unity is the only way to defeat the People’s National Movement (PNM) and invited COP "brothers and sisters" to join the UNC Alliance.

Roy Augusts was fired last week from his job at the Centre of Excellence, owned by Jack Warner, another UNC Deputy political Leader and MP for Chaguanas West.

Warner and Augustus have been close friends for decades and although Augustus took leave to work for the rival COP, Warner had taken no action against him. Sources say this might be an opportunity for Augustus to sever ties with COP and mend fences with his friend.

The sources say Dookeran will not be involved in any reconciliation talks with the UNC Alliance because he has burned all his bridges and has no credibility inside the UNC-A leadership.

They say Dookeran is depressed over the outcome of the election, especially losing his St. Augustine seat to UNC-Alliance executive member, Vasant Bharat.

The name that’s coming up as the go-between in reconciliation talks ahead of the Local Government election is Sadiq Baksh, who had been UNC Party organizer before he deserted to join the COP with another high-ranking UNC member, Ganga Singh.

Baksh did not run in the 2007 election and was working quietly behind the scene. Singh, who ran in the Caroni East seat that he won on a UNC ticket in previous elections, lost to UNC Alliance executive member, Dr Tim Gopeesingh.

UNC Alliance sources say Baksh may have some difficulty penetrating the new UNC Alliance front line primarily because his name came up several times during the election campaign in the context of corruption.

The COP sources who have talked about reconciliation are suggesting that the trio of Bissessar, former Attorney General Ramesh L. Maharaj and Oroupuche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal will be the ones to seal any deal to merge the parties.

The sources say UNC Political Leader Basdeo Panday would welcome home "the prodigals" because he has always insisted that the only way to defeat the PNM is to have unity in the opposition.

The day before the Nov. 5 general election and at the UNC A rally the day before Panday made a passionate plea for COP supporters to vote with the UNC-Alliance to defeat "crime and corruption".

On election night, he chided everyone who voted against the UNC-A and who did not vote, telling them they must take responsibility for the state of affairs under the PNM.


Originally pubished: Nov. 19, 2007