Vote UNC: Former COP Deputy Leader

Senator Sharon-Ann Gopaul-McNicol says she is still a member of the Congress of the People (COP) but she was not speaking as one when he addressed a meeting of the United National Congress (UNC) Monday night.

Mc Nicol was a deputy leader of the COP until she accepted an invitation from opposition leader Basdeo Panday in April to serve in the Senate. Panday fired National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) leader Dr Carson Charles and handed Mc Nichol the job.

He said she made the change to continue his quest for national unity. She said she was happy to serve but would remain a member of her party.

Read the story:Panday fires Carson Charles from Senate, appoints former COP deputy leader

On Monday she issued a passionate call for members of COP to vote for the UNC in the next general election if the parties cannot unite in a single platform, saying COP cannot beat the People's National Movement (PNM) if it fights alone.

COP has agreed on that point but its position is the reverse. It has said on numerous occasions that it is the only credible vehicle for change and has called on all UNC MPs and members to join COP.

And COP Leader Winston Dookeran has stated that the leaders of the UNC and PNM are colluding to betray the population.

Mc Nichol presented the bottom up formula that Panday has been suggesting as a means of uniting the opposition. "If you have to choose, if there is no unity from the top, we have to unite from the bottom, and if there is no unity you have to choose the party that stands the best chance of getting into Government and that, my friends, happens to be the UNC," she said.

"You can’t be a pussy cat taking on the PNM. You have to be a fighter, you have to be a lion, you have to be strong," she said in reference to Panday. She added, "You can’t be shaking and trembling and head bobbing and all these antics that I have seen. You have to be strong!"

Panday's speech took aim Dookeran whom he accused of misleading the people by criticising the Panday-Manning meeting last week. Both leaders met to discuss crime and constitutional reform.

But Dookeran told supporters that explanation of the talks was for public relations adding that there was another secret agenda.

Read the story: "I don't trust Mr Panday": Dookeran

Panday said his meeting with Manning was in no way a political accord.

"There are lots of wicked people out there who are spreading all kinds of rumours," he said adding that "all these mischief makers, these power-hungry fools in sheep’s clothing will never mislead the people."

He insisted that the talks were not a "hide and seek meeting, this was going to be no secret meeting or using the cover of talk about football to talk about other things,” he said, in reference to Changunas MP Jack Warner's talks with Manning.

"Up to this day, the public does not know what took place at that so-called football meeting with the PM," Panday added.

He said constitutional reform requires the cooperation of Government and Opposition as it superseded every other issue in the country.