The political leader of the Congress of the People and the party’s general secretary both resigned ahead of Sunday’s leadership election earlier today.
Dr Anirudh Mahabir and Clyde Weatherhead announced their resignations yesterday in the face of legal action by a member who has challenged the candidacy of Nicole Dyer-Griffith for the leadership of the party.
And while one of the candidates for leadership Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan believes that the development will hurt the party, another candidate Sharon Gopaul-McNicol said both men “landed us in this situation and it was wise for them to resign.”
The election originally carded for July 9, had been postponed to Sunday and the men were threatened with further legal action if they tried to postpone the election again.
Mahabir and Weatherhead issued a joint statement yesterday detailing their reasons for their resignations. They say they had been placed “in an untenable position between warring factions, and are both saddened and frustrated,” that they were brought to the court “despite all of our hard work and the support that we have given to the party.”
The men said they had been in discussions with COP member Kirt Francis, who initiated the lawsuit, as well as the three candidates over the past six days “in order to arrive at a resolution in the interest of the COP.”