Former?COP?vice-chairman Vernon de Lima, who resigned from the position on Monday, is keeping his options open on whether to contest another executive position in the party's November elections. De Lima said this yesterday when asked if he would be staying with the party after last Sunday's defeat of his motion against National Security?Minister Jack Warner by the COP's National Council.
His motion called for the Prime Minister to remove Warner from the Cabinet because of alleged corruption connected with FIFA, failing which the COP would completely distance itself from the coalition People's Partnership. The motion was defeated since COP leader Prakash Ramadhar was not in favour of walking away from the coalition and the party's council amended the motion to remove that aspect.
Ramadhar and the council, however, stood by the party's concerns about Warner. De Lima, who had promised to resign from his post if the motion failed, did so with effect from midnight on Monday. Yesterday, de Lima said he was over the situation and had moved on. He said he did not think the COP's credibility had been damaged by the situation. Asked if he would remain in the party, de Lima said: "For the time being I'm keeping my options open. I'm looking to see what will happen over the next few weeks."
De Lima added that he would keep his options open over contesting a post on the COP?executive in the party's nternal executive elections on November 5. While the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) has accused the COP of being weak and copping out on the motion, de Lima said he didn't feel the COP's credibility was compromised, since he said the council didn't fully back down from the motion and had actually approved the substantive part, only amending a portion of it.
De Lima said while the party believed it could mend matters on the Warner issue from inside the PP?coalition, he did not believe that, because the COP had already called three times for Warner's removal in the last year, to no avail.