Political leader of the Congress of the People (COP) Prakash Ramadhar scoffed at suggestions that the party’s principal coalition partner, the United National Congress (UNC), was encroaching on the COP’s independence. This is despite the COP choosing a member of the UNC, Hamlyn Jailal, as its candidate for the marginal seat of Tunapuna.
Ramadhar spoke to reporters on Tuesday night, in an interview following the launch of the campaign for the St Augustine seat, which Ramadhar was chosen to contest. Jailal is the chairman of the National Insurance Property Development Company (Nipdec) and the chairman of the UNC Tunapuna constituency.
“Mr Jailal is no stranger to the COP,” Ramadhar said.
“He ran our campaign in 2010 in Tunapuna and in 2013 for local government elections. He is well known in the constituency and has worked very hard for over 20 years.” Ramadhar said the COP had to decide who had the best opportunity for success, adding he was not surprised at the criticism.
“There will always be people who will have one view or another view and therefore it is not surprising but we believe he will be the best candidate to win in Tunapuna.” He said the move was not unprecedented, as the COP had chosen members from other parties as candidates in the past.
“We have done it in the past. We took members of the NJAC (National Joint Action Committee) in 2010 and they ran as COP so nothing is serious about that.”
Asked if there were no suitable COP members for the seat, Ramadhar said Jailal was the best choice. “We had good people but we cannot slip in Tunapuna and therefore the person who has that long history, we needed.
“You can say a person is UNC or COP but the qualities of that person, the commitment, dedication, decency is what we looked for.”
Ramadhar was unsure, though, as to whether Jailal was screened by a screening committee of the COP. Asked whether Jailal had been, Ramadhar said he would check. “As far as I am concerned, I met with him along with others and deemed him an appropriate candidate and in any event I asked for him to be put before the proper screening committee.”
He denied that the decision to select Jailal came from the UNC. “Mr Jailal is not the UNC candidate. He is the COP candidate. He has worked with us. It was our decision.”
On Sunday, the People’s Partnership will announce its 41 candidates, after leaders from the coalition partners complete negotiations on which seats they would contest. Tuesday night’s launch saw approximately 200 people from both the COP and the UNC brave rainy weather to listen to several speakers talk about the partnership’s accomplishments over the past five years.
Education Minister Tim Gopeesingh, Planning Minister Bhoe Tewarie, Arts Minister Lincoln Douglas and National Diversity Minister Rodger Samuel also encouraged the audience to band together to convince constituents to vote to give the partnership another term.