COP suspends three members; alleges they worked with PNM to sabotage LGE

The Congress of the People has suspended three of its members from the party's national council for allegedly working with the opposition People's National Movement (PNM) to sabotage COP's local government campaign.

The suspended members are Kishore Ramadhar, brother of COP leader Prakash Ramadhar, Satu Ann Ramcharan and Rudolph Hananjii.

COP said it took the decision Sunday based on a letter the three allegedly sent to PNM general secretary Ashton Ford regarding local government election campaign. The letter alerted Ford and the PNM to confidential information that COP candidates J-lynn Roopnarine, Prakash Bharath and Dianne Bishop were not COP members.

COP chair Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan told the Trinidad Express a prima facie case has been laid out against the three suspended members. "We will make every effort to investigate and to have it concluded as soon as possible. A motion was brought forward to have an investigation. They were suspended from the national council and the national executive."

She told the paper that there appears to be be clear evidence of sabotage. "We heard these members were actually discouraging our members from running in the election and were asking them to withdraw. Secondly, they had run ground campaign against many of our candidates. It’s the same group of people who were calling for Ramadhar to be removed as political leader.”

The leader of the party told the paper he would wait for the investigation to be completed but if the allegations are true then the next step would be to expel the three members. "It is the highest level of treachery," he said.

A copy of a letter with the signatures of the three members states: "You will see from the membership listing these candidates are not members of the COP.”

Kishore Ramadhar didn't deny the charge but stated that here was a "blatant disregard of COP’s mandate" to nominate as candidates people who were not COP members and to have them vote as delegates at the national council. He also threatened to take legal action for what he said were defamatory comments made against him.

Ford denied that the PNM received inside information from COP members. Ford said he does not know of anyone in the PNM receiving letters on that subject. He added that when the PNM complained about the COP candidates not being members of the party it was based on information in the public domain.

COP contested five of the 14 regions in the October 21 local election and lost all five to the PNM.