Sports Minister Anil Roberts said on Wednesday the party ranks of the Congress of the People (COP) strongly oppose the call by the executive for the immediate removal of Marlene Coudray as Mayor of San Fernando.
COP political leader Prakash Ramadhar told reporters on Tuesday the United National Congress (UNC) breached the Fyzabad Declaration when it accepted Coudray as a UNC member and allowed her to run for one of the deputy leader posts in Saturday's internal election of the UNC.
Ramadhar claimed that the declaration stated that the mayor of San Fernando will be a COP member. However, JYOTI has been unable to find that provision in the declaration. What the document says is that Kamla Persad-Bissessar would be the leader and in clause 6.b it states:
COP political leader Prakash Ramadhar told reporters on Tuesday the United National Congress (UNC) breached the Fyzabad Declaration when it accepted Coudray as a UNC member and allowed her to run for one of the deputy leader posts in Saturday's internal election of the UNC.
Ramadhar claimed that the declaration stated that the mayor of San Fernando will be a COP member. However, JYOTI has been unable to find that provision in the declaration. What the document says is that Kamla Persad-Bissessar would be the leader and in clause 6.b it states:
"The Partners agree to select candidates and only one candidate from the partnership shall contest the General Election in each constituency in Trinidad and in Tobago and such candidate shall be the
standard-bearer for the Partners in that constituency."
standard-bearer for the Partners in that constituency."
Read the document: The Fyzabad Declaration - April 21, 2010
Roberts told reporters Ramadhar should reconsider his position on the issue. He called the demand by the party leader wrong, adding that it makes "no sense".
Roberts said Coudray's decision to leave the COP and join the UNC was not significant enough "to cause the fracture of a Government" and added: "For my leader to say he is going to mash up the Government because one lady chose to go to another party...it baffles me."
Roberts, who ran against Ramadhar for the leadership of COP when Winston Dookeran stepped down, said Ramadhar "does not speak for me and I am a member of COP."
Roberts, who ran against Ramadhar for the leadership of COP when Winston Dookeran stepped down, said Ramadhar "does not speak for me and I am a member of COP."
Roberts insisted that Coudray cannot be more important than dealing with crime, labour issues and food production challenges facing the country today.
"To say that the Fyzabad Declaration was signed with the COP having a mayoral position is ludicrous.
"The main tenets of it was not about seat allocation and who gets what, it was about policies and programmes...I don’t see that the Fyzabad Declaration says if we don’t get a seat come out...or if we lose a mayor or a position, come out.”
He described Ramadhar’s position as "simplistic". He added that "it is puerile, it is childish and I would not be in support of that whatsoever. So I will ask my leader to rethink his position."
"The main tenets of it was not about seat allocation and who gets what, it was about policies and programmes...I don’t see that the Fyzabad Declaration says if we don’t get a seat come out...or if we lose a mayor or a position, come out.”
He described Ramadhar’s position as "simplistic". He added that "it is puerile, it is childish and I would not be in support of that whatsoever. So I will ask my leader to rethink his position."
The Sports Minister suggested that the matter could hurt the leader. "He has not thought it out, it makes no sense and it is not that important when compared to problems in the society."
No comments:
Post a Comment