Marlene was consensus candidate for Mayor; COP disagrees

File: PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar with San Fernando mayor Marlene Coudray

The deputy mayor of San Fernando, Navi Muradali, told the Trinidad Express that when Marlene Coudray was elected as an alderman on August 4, 2010, the choice was made on the basis of the Fyzabad Declaration, which provided for COP to choose the Mayors for San Fernando and Arima.

He insisted that Coudray's election as mayor was based on that agreement and that COP members were advised that they should support Coudray for the post.

However, one of the deputy leader of the United National Congress (UNC), Dr Roodal Moonilal, has denied that.

He told the Express, "The Fyzabad Declaration was before the May 2010 general election so I am not aware that the Fyzabad Declaration dealt with mayor and chairman and aldermen and so on."

Moonilal said he was not aware that Coudray was the COP's candidate. "She was the consensus candidate, in that the partners, both the UNC and the COP agreed on her," he said.

Moonilal added, "There were other persons which the COP had nominated, (with) which the UNC had a difficulty. And there were other people the UNC nominated that (with which) the COP had a difficulty. So she was not a candidate of any one party. She was both COP and UNC because they both agreed."

Now that Coudray has left COP and ran for an was elected a UNC Deputy Leader COP is demanding her removal as mayor. And COP leader Prakash Ramadhar is suggesting this matter could wreck the partnership.

Muradali told the paper his clear understanding that that Coudray was COP and that he and the other COP councillors would not have supported her. "If she was not a COP at the time we would not have supported her," he said.