COP shows its "Hart" documents, calls for an election

The deputy leader of the Congress of the People (COP) told reporters Tuesday the threat of a lawsuit prompted the party to obtain documents linking former UDeCOTT chairman Calder Hart to the directors of CH Development.

Prakash Ramadhar COP's Vernon De Lima was served a pre-action protocol letter threatening a lawsuit against him for statements he had made about Hart and his family and their connections to CH Construction, which eventually became the Sunway company.

He said that led another COP official, Timothy Hamel-Smith, to contact a law firm in Malaysia that made the application to the registry in Malaysia for documents that prove the connection. They include three birth certificates and a marriage certificate.

Ramadhar said anyone who wants to challenge the authenticity of the documents can make a similar application to the Malaysian authorities.

"We have never indicated to anybody that the authorities should use our documents but our documents are really the trigger for them to continue their work and conduct an investigation, criminal and forensic, into Mr Hart and UDeCOTT and any other board he may have sat on," Ramadhar said.

Ramadhar produced the original documents for the media to see.

COP leader Winston Dookeran challenged Prime Minister Patrick Manning to call an election on the issue. The opposition United National Congress (UNC) has also told Manning to call an election.