Two more Congress of the People (COP) members yesterday resigned from the coalition partner, as the fallout in the wake of the resignation of former chair Nicole Dyer-Griffith over the United National Congress’ treatment of the party continued.
Walking out of COP’s Flagship House just after 3.30 pm yesterday, founding member Joe Pires, businessman Conrad Aleong and Richard Granger, who had resigned earlier in the week, left the COP behind.
“In its current state the COP has no future, it has made itself irrelevant. The leadership is weak,” Aleong and the others said.
Aleong said with the “spate” of recent resignations, the COP was no longer the political party to which he wanted to belong.
“We have had meetings with Mr (Prakash) Ramadhar going back two, three years, telling him to leave and work our way back. It is just wrong,” Aleong said.
The three said they made several attempts to discuss their languishing loyalty to the party with Ramadhar, but nothing was ever done.
Aleong also signalled his disapproval of the path the party had taken, saying it had veered off the tracks laid by founder Winston Dookeran.
He said he was part of the undecided group of voters who did not vote along tribal lines but looked to ensure they put country first.
“COP looked like the right vehicle with Mr Dookeran; it had the right leadership,” he said.
“I have never been political before, I joined and thought I’d help out. But along the way, very early after the PP got into power, the COP leadership lost its way and disappointed the majority of the people that sought change.
“The people who expected the COP to keep the UNC honest were very disappointed.”
Aleong said he was not a part of any tribe and would not be voting along those lines.
“We need to get a movement of people who really care for this country, so therefore I cannot stay there,” he said.
Pires, chairman of the Diego Martin northeast constituency, said the constituency seat was “handed over to the UNC (United National Congress)” years ago. He said he and that whole constituency had been “wary” of the COP being subsumed under the UNC since then.
“My leader has listened, but I am very concerned about the future of the Diego Martin northeast constituency,” Pires said.
Granger said the COP had become a UNC b-team, which was not what he initially signed up for when he joined the party.
“They boxed the COP in from very early in the game and from then on, it was just a downhill slide,” Granger said, adding the COP was treated badly by the UNC Government.
He described the coalition situation as akin to battered wife syndrome.
“You getting licks everyday and being told that you wrong, but you know that you are right,” he said.