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| TOP leader Ashworth Jack speaks on behalf of the PP leaders following Thursday's meeting |
The leader of the Tobago Organisation of the People (TOP) Ashworth Jack, who spoke on behalf of the leaders following Thursday's meeting of the coalition partners told reporters, "We have all agreed that there is no other choice but to keep this together and to continue working in the best interest of the country.”
Thursday's meeting had been arranged long before the Congress of the People (COP) made a big fuss over the mayor of San Fernando running for a post of Deputy Leader in the internal election of the United National Congress (UNC).
COP chairman Joseph Toney first objected, calling Marlene Coudray's move "poaching" and suggested the partnership would be weakened as a result.
Then COP leader Prakash Ramadhar declared that it was disrespectful and demanded Coudray be removed as mayor and replaced with a COP mayor since it was agreed in the Fyzabad Declaration that COP would have a mayor in Arima and San Fernando.
When it was pointed out that no such provision could be found in the declaration, Ramadhar stated that it was a "gentleman's agreement" that was sealed with a handshake.
The UNC insisted that Coudray acted on her own and the party accepted her in keeping with its big tent philosophy of having room for everyone.
Coudray herself confirmed that no one had encouraged her to move, pointing out that her former party was out of line to suggest otherwise. In fact she made it clear that it was the UNC that proposed her to be mayor, not COP.
The leaders met at the Diplomatic centre for four hours Thursday to deal with the Coudray issue although the meeting had been initially arranged to discuss issues raised by the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ).
The meeting ended without any resolution on the COP complaints. However leaders agreed to meet again on Monday afternoon to continue their talks.
Jack, who spoke on behalf of the leaders of the partnership told reporters the discussions were “very open" and that there were frank discussions on a wide range of issues.
"The leaders reiterated their commitment to the Partnership and to the Fyzabad accord and its declarations," Jack stated.
"Given the importance of the issue under discussion, it was necessary for the leaders to continue to meet and we have agreed that this meeting will continue on Monday, next week at 2 p.m." he added.
"I know you want to know exactly what happened on every issue, but we will not be able to say that because there are issues with wide-ranging implications... When you have to run a Government with all the different competing interests, it is necessary for us to kind of work things out to its logical conclusion."
Reporters pressed Ramadhar for a declarative statement on the talks. However he did not wish to say very much. "Let me just say that we have to have another meeting. And to say anything more than that will be a bit premature,” he said.
He told reporters to have patience until Monday. "We will be forthright with the nation at the conclusion of this meeting, which is on Monday," he said.
The Express newspaper reported Saturday that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is standing firm on the Coudray matter and has insisted that she will not agree to Ramadhar's demands, citing two anonymous senior Government sources.
The paper said the leaders felt COP was being unreasonable in its demands.
The leaders met at the Diplomatic centre for four hours Thursday to deal with the Coudray issue although the meeting had been initially arranged to discuss issues raised by the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ).
The meeting ended without any resolution on the COP complaints. However leaders agreed to meet again on Monday afternoon to continue their talks.
Jack, who spoke on behalf of the leaders of the partnership told reporters the discussions were “very open" and that there were frank discussions on a wide range of issues.
"The leaders reiterated their commitment to the Partnership and to the Fyzabad accord and its declarations," Jack stated.
"Given the importance of the issue under discussion, it was necessary for the leaders to continue to meet and we have agreed that this meeting will continue on Monday, next week at 2 p.m." he added.
"I know you want to know exactly what happened on every issue, but we will not be able to say that because there are issues with wide-ranging implications... When you have to run a Government with all the different competing interests, it is necessary for us to kind of work things out to its logical conclusion."
Reporters pressed Ramadhar for a declarative statement on the talks. However he did not wish to say very much. "Let me just say that we have to have another meeting. And to say anything more than that will be a bit premature,” he said.
He told reporters to have patience until Monday. "We will be forthright with the nation at the conclusion of this meeting, which is on Monday," he said.
The Express newspaper reported Saturday that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is standing firm on the Coudray matter and has insisted that she will not agree to Ramadhar's demands, citing two anonymous senior Government sources.
The paper said the leaders felt COP was being unreasonable in its demands.
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