Derek Achong
Senior Reporter
derek.achong@guardian.co.tt
The Congress of the People (COP) has reached out to the United National Congress (UNC) to discuss its desire to contest several seats in the highly anticipated upcoming general election.
COP leader Prakash Ramadhar made the announcement yesterday while addressing a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Curepe.
Ramadhar said, “It is, of course, our intention to run in many seats. In fact, I would say now we have opened a line of communication formally with the United National Congress to begin discussions on how we would move forward.”
He did not reveal if the party received a response.
Ramadhar reiterated his view that the party could only succeed in its goal of improving T&T if it held seats in Parliament.
“When I came back into politics, I told my colleagues that we did not come to waste time ... We came to make change, positive change in this country. The best ideas, the best ambitions without power, are just that: ideas and ambition,” he said.
Noting that the party secured over 148,000 votes in the 2007 general election but failed to secure a seat, he pointed out that it only experienced electoral success when it teamed up with the UNC and other smaller political parties to form the People’s Partnership for the 2010 general election.
“We have to learn. Therefore, if we want our policies, ambitions, and ideas to be manifested into reality, we have to be part of a government. We cannot do it alone,” he said.
While both the People’s National Movement (PNM) and the UNC have completed screening for the election, the date of which is yet to be announced, only the PNM has announced the full list of its candidates.
The PNM candidates are expected to be officially unveiled to supporters at a rally in Woodford Square in Port-of-Spain later today.
The rally takes place on the eve of the retirement of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and the pending swearing-in of Minister of Energy and Energy Industries Stuart Young as his replacement.
Ramadhar described the leadership change as cosmetic.
“Mr Young, who I consider a good person, would be swallowed up. It is obvious that the power in the PNM is not those who you see, like the Prime Minister or the Cabinet, you know. There are powers behind who make the decisions and use the Cabinet to effect their policies,” he said.
Ramadhar spent a considerable portion of the conference addressing the issue of crime.
He revealed that a senior executive member was robbed at gunpoint shortly after leaving a meeting at the location last week.
“So, we are all affected,” he said.
He suggested that the police should focus on charging and prosecuting a handful of major criminal offenders to send a message to the small part of the population involved in crime.
“It is our belief at this table that the number of true hardcore criminals is far less in number than we are led to believe. If you successfully go after a small number, then the message would go out to those who think that their future is criminality and a profession of crime,” he said.
He noted that a similar approach was taken in the 1990s to address drug kingpin Nankissoon “Dole Chadee” Boodram and members of his gang, who were executed after being convicted of the murders of four members of a Piparo family.