No COP-UNC-A alliance in the workds: Panday

Basdeo Panday says the Congress of the People (COP) has not made any proposal for unity or an acomodation with the United National Congress Alliance (UNC-A) for the local government election due to be held in July.

The opposition leader was responding to a call for a political made by COP's Gerry Yetming in an interview on television Tuesday morning.

Panday and the UNC-A have been pleading for unity with COP since before the last general election.

But all those appeals were rejected out of hand by the COP leadership, including Yetming.On the eve of the election Panday made an impassioned plea for the two opposition parties to unite, noting that it was the only way to defeat the governing People's National Movement (PNM).

His appeal was ignored and the PNM was returned to government with 26 seats, with the UNC-A getting the other 15; the COP was shut out.

But election statistics show that had COP responded to the call the result would have been different and might have even put the PNM in opposition. The combined opposition won more than 54 per cent of the popular vote and in at least six critical constituencies the combined COP-UNC-A vote was higher than the PNM's.

Panday told local media that if COP is serious about unity it should be discussing the matter with the party instead of in the media.

But Yetming now says he was speaking in a private capacity, not on behalf of COP, which puts everything right back where it was.

Panday says even if the COP makes a proposal for an alliance of some kind he is not the one who can decide on it. "The UNC-Alliance is a political party with a constitution," he told the Trinidad guardian, "this would have to be discussed by the executive. No one person can respond."

He said if COP makes a proposal it would have to be considered based on the details of the party's offer.

COP Political leader Winston Dookeran has not commented on the matter.