Chairman of the Independent Liberal Party (ILP) Rekha Ramjit says the party will not crumble in the wake of the arrest and indictment of its political leader, Jack Warner.
Speaking on i95.5 FM radio station yesterday morning, Ramjit said the unfair treatment meted to Warner would concretise support for the party and for him.
Warner, a former FIFA vice-president, was slapped with eight charges, including racketeering, conspiracy to defraud and illegal wire transfers in a US court.
He was arrested on a provisional warrant pending his extradition to the US.
Ramjit said: “We know the warrant had to be issued but the manner in which it was done, people felt he was treated differently and not in the best of ways.
“It sort of concretised their support for him. The party goes on. I do not see a trickling away. I see a coming together because when you are treated unfairly no matter where you are from, people congregate around you.”
Ramjit said Attorney General Gavin Nicholas should have passed on the information concerning Warner’s arrest to him and said if Nicholas had done so, Warner would not have spent the night in jail after his court appearance.
She added: “I think that was a courtesy owed to Warner. We would have been prepared. He would have been brought to court earlier... he would have had the warrant executed earlier and therefore no clerk of peace could have said my office closes at 4.”
She said the management of the issue was causing unease among members of the public.
“I heard Mr (Suruj) Rambachan say he knows nothing about this. I do not understand how a government could be in contact with another government and one of the senior ministers knows absolutely nothing.
“So by their very answers it is causing some concern in the eyes of the public,” she noted.
Ramjit said the ILP would continue to screen candidates for the upcoming general election.
“We are going to move forward with our original plan of fielding 41 candidates and working the ground, representing the typical ordinary man and that is not a political speech, that is our policy,” she added.
The ILP held a meeting on Wednesday night in Sangre Grande but Ramjit said it was not an emergency meeting but an opportunity for the executive to give each other moral support.