Some people want to jump the unification queue: Dookeran

Winston Dookeran believes some individuals in his Congress of the People (COP) want to pre-empt a process of unification between the COP and the United National Congress (UNC) under Kamla Persad-Bissessar but he did not name anyone.

Dookeran was commenting on a decision by prominent COP member Anand Ramlogan to return to the UNC.

Ramlogan spoke at a UNC meeting in Tabaquite Monday night. He was the COP candidate in the constituency in the 2007 general election and lost to Ramesh L. Maharaj, who scored a minority victory with COP and the PNM getting the majority of the votes.

Ramlogan is confident that new UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar will lead a united opposition and beat the PNM in the next general election.

He said since Persad-Bissessar's victory in January there has been an exodus of COP members to the UNC. COP's electoral support in the 2007 election came mainly from disenchanted UNC supporters who were unhappy with the leadership, including Ramlogan.

Dookeran declined any direct comment on what Ramlogan stated. However he told the Trinidad Express, "What I wish to say is that we have prepared a working document for discussion on advancing the unification process, if we are serious about building a new alternative for the benefit of this nation.

"I have shared this with the political leader of the UNC and indeed with the public at large, with a view of guiding a very structured approach to the building of an alternative that is different from the past alternatives which have all floundered in the politics of yesterday."

Dookeran said Ramlogan is entitled to his opinion. And he added that there is no mass movement away from COP.

"I think obviously that people want to see a serious unification. If we do not rise to the occasion of having such a unification, then people will have to make choices with respect to the different parties.

"I think there will be one or two individuals who will want to jump the queue, so to speak, and I guess that is their own individual decision," Dookeran told the paper.