A convenient "error" led to Rambachan's fall

Opposition Senator M.F. Rahman believes that the fall of Suruj Rambachan as mayor of Chaguanas can be traced to a deal between Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner and Prime Minister Patrick Manning.

In a letter circulating on Internet chat groups Rahman says a clause in the Municipal Authority Bill that delayed local government elections for another year provided for the change of aldermen.

Rambachan was an alderman in the Chaguanas borough council and lost his mayoral seat because the council did not re-elect him.

Rahman notes in his letter that Manning explained that the alderman clause was included "in error" and that at the Senate Committee stage, "when this "error" was pursued for correction, the Government pleaded that the delay would be prohibitive, and assured that no changes would take place among aldermen."

He says Warner's admission that he had long "pre-planned the coup in Chaguanas, one must wonder at the suave assurances of inadvertent error made by the PM."

He continues, "Serious questions arise concerning the private relationship between the PM and FIFA's local honcho whose plans seemingly coincided. And one may also ponder the sincerity of the plea of "error". There is something rotten in the State."