The Congress of the People (COP) will contest at least 13 seats in the next general election. COP political leader Prakash Ramadhar yesterday told the Guardian that the party will go after all the seats it contested in the 2010 elections, and “preliminary work” has started on the selection of candidates.
“We have an audit going through every constituency we now occupy, to look at the work of the incumbent MPs and ascertain their state of readiness and political preparedness,” said Ramadhar. “We have not announced yet the date for screening, but every one of our MPs and potential candidates will certainly have to undergo a screening process, even myself as political leader.”
In 2010, COP won six seats: Arima (Rodger Samuel), D’Abadie/O’Meara (Anil Roberts), Lopinot/Bon Air West (Lincoln Douglas), San Fernando West (Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan), St Augustine (Prakash Ramadhar), and Tunapuna (Winston Dookeran).
But they received votes in seven other constituencies: Arouca/Maloney, Diego Martin Central, Diego Martin West, Laventille East/Morvant, Laventille West, Point Fortin and Port-of-Spain South. This is according to an analysis of votes in the Report of the Elections and Boundaries Commission on the Parliamentary Elections 2010, on the EBC website.
“We are contesting the seats we now have, and others we contested on the last occasion but did not yet succeed,” Ramadhar said in an interview with the Guardian at the COP’s Sports and Family Day yesterday, held at the George Boyce Recreation Grounds in Arima.
“Many have given us burial rites already, but as we proceed throughout the nation, we realise now more than ever that the COP is still there, and we are proud of that. Because people truly appreciate that having stayed in government, having sacrificed many things, we were consistent in the commitment we made in 2010, and we never left the game. We continued on behalf of the people,” he said.