Former deputy leader and candidate for political leader in the upcoming Congress of the People (COP) elections Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, says it is disappointing that the internal elections of the party had to be taken to the courts but is looking forward to the elections whenever they may be.
In an interview with the Sunday Guardian yesterday, Seepersad-Bachan said it was a disappointment to see elections postponed yet again as it was demoralising to her team, but added that the COP needed to comply with the dictates of the constitution.
The party’s election was postponed for the second time in two months after Justice Ricky Rahim, sitting in the San Fernando High Court last week, ordered that the election, carded for today, be postponed and that the national executive of the party meet to consider the membership of persons who had applied.
He ruled that given the resignations of the members of the election’s committee the leadership election had to be postponed to a date to be fixed.
The election was originally scheduled for July 9, but COP member Kirk Francis filed an application to the court seeking an injunction to prevent Nicole Dyer-Griffith, who had left her party and formed a new party in 2015, from voting and being a candidate for political leader, and to prevent 34 other people from voting in the election.
The party’s constitution states that if someone leaves the party, goes to another one and wants to return they need to write the chairman and political leader first. The letter is then supposed to be discussed by the national executive, who will interview the person and then take a decision on the application.
Seepersad-Bachan yesterday said the court matter had had a negative impact on the party.
“It is my humble view that this should have remained out of the court. I was very disappointed as I had feared the party has collapsed with all these resignations. I am happy to know we are moving forward again,” she said.
She said the lesson to be learned was that “winning an election at all cost should never happen.”
“Nobody wanted to compromise. This is exactly the problem with politics of this country,” she said.
“People were so caught up with political power and did not realise they were damaging the interest of the party. Winning at all costs is not the way to go. The COP politics slipped into some of the old traditional styles. It confirms, in my view, the message that we need to change our politics.”
Congress of the People chairman Jamieson Bahadur has said if Dyer-Griffith wants to re-apply for membership in the party, she will have to write to him and he will take the matter to the national executive.
Yesterday, Gary Griffith, Dyer-Griffith’s husband and campaign manager, in a response to the Bahadur’s statements, questioned whether the constitution of the COP was being used conveniently.
“Jamie Bahadur, the returning chairman of COP, who did not support Nicole for the post of political leader, is quoted as saying that Nicole’s application for membership required that she submit a request in writing to both the political leader and chairman, which he claims did not happen.
“In total contrast to his curious comments, exactly what he claimed that was required for Nicole Dyer- Griffith to be considered to be a member was actually done, except for the part of writing to the chairman, as he was absent from that post for nearly a year,” Griffith said.
He also claimed Bahadur had informed the party he was no longer interested in acting as chairman and never attended one meeting of the national executive for several months, and was never involved in anything involving the running of the party for this year.
“So how can Nicole have written to someone in a post who was absent?”
Griffith said it seemed that some people wanted to use the COP constitution conveniently.