COP, UNC to share seats to build new T&T society

The Congress of the People (COP) and the United National Congress (UNC) have agreed that they will share constituencies in the May 24 general election in Trinidad and Tobago.

In making announcement Friday UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said the unity accord will be followed by meetings with other political groups opposed to the Manning administration.

She called the May 24 election date "Liberation Day", noting that there is a special signficance for the 24th day of the month, since it was on January 24 she became leader of her party and on February 24 that she replaced Basdeo Panday as opposition leader.

May 24, she said, would be the third signficant event - the "grandmother of all elections" - with the symbolic 24. The People's National Movement (PNM) won its first election in 1956 on September 24.

While the leaders did not announce the creation of a new party, Persad-Bissessar spoke about the United National Congress of the People, which combines the main elements of the name of both UNC and COP.

In the 2007 general election the two parties won more votes than the governing People's National Movement (PNM) but the PNM won a majority of 26 of the 41 seats in Parliament.

The UNC won the other 15 while COP had none despite getting more than 148,000 votes. When the UNC leadership changed, COP leader Winston Dookeran announced that there would be no opposition vote splitting in the next election.