Two senior members of the Congress of the People (COP) are out of the running for this year’s general election.
The party has decided to remove its founder, Tunapuna MP Winston Dookeran, and his long-time supporter, San Fernando West MP Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, from its electoral line-up for the election, citing their failure to attend high-level talks regarding the party’s choices for election.
The decision comes after two letters were sent to Dookeran and Seepersad-Bachan notifying them they had until November 25 to respond to the request for a meeting.
In that letter, the COP executive said since the two did not respond to previous letters “the party will be constrained to assume that it is your intention not to seek re-election or be considered as a candidate in the general election 2015.”
But even as Seepersad-Bachan is denying she was invited to any meeting, the T&T Guardian understands that party leader Prakash Ramadhar is expected to announce their removal from the line-up after the party’s national council meeting on Sunday.
Party chair Nicole Dyer-Griffith said yesterday she could not discuss party matters but confirmed the national council meeting on Sunday.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Seepersad-Bachan said she never received any such letters from the party executive inviting her to any meetings.
Seepersad-Bachan also was surprised the party would be making a definitive statement on the issue on Sunday.
This is fresh contention between the Dookeran Seepersad-Bachan faction and the rest of the COP.
The two MPs were the only party members to a make a “conscience vote” against the Government during the Constitutional Amendment Bill and Dookeran also showed his support for Seepersad-Bachan when she challenged Ramadhar for the COP leadership election last year.
The T&T Guardian was told that Seepersad-Bachan’s supporters believed the bid to remove her was a bid by the United National Congress (UNC) to undermine the independence of the COP.
They say the UNC only recently established an office one block away from Seepersad-Bachan’s MP office on Harris Street, San Fernando, and has not been inviting her to constituency meetings held there.
The T&T Guardian was also told by party insiders that Dookeran has signalled his refusal to re-contest the Tunapuna seat in the upcoming election and that is the seat Dyer-Griffith has been eying for her bid as an MP.
“I am not sure this is the way to treat MPs, especially those who have been in leadership,” Seepersad-Bachan said.
Insiders close to the situation though have taken a different view, saying Seepersad-Bachan was aware of the letters because it was discussed with party general secretary Clyde Weatherhead.
This group also claimed that Ramadhar attempted to meet with Seepersad-Bachan on several occasions, making the requests verbally and in a mobile text but she claimed to be busy on those occasions.
Ramadhar and Dookeran did not respond to calls to their cellphones yesterday.