Chairman of the Congress of the People (COP) Lopinot/Bon Air West constituency executive Rawle Raphael and the entire executive have resigned from the party and are expected to join the United National Congress (UNC). Raphael confirmed the move during a news conference at the Surrey Community Centre, near Lopinot, yesterday.
Raphael said the eight COP members resigned over the lack of representation by MP Lincoln Douglas, Minister of State in the Ministry of the People and Social Development, and also one of the deputy political leaders of the party. The executive had sought to have Douglas recalled as MP and had convened a meeting to express a lack of confidence in him. This did not find favour with the party's national executive.
Raphael said a meeting was called with the party's leadership but it ended inconclusively, as members of the constituency executive walked out in disagreement. He told reporters yesterday: "The COP executive (on Tuesday) took a decision to remove ourselves from the Congress of the People and join the United National Congress (UNC)." He said the MP was never recommended by the constituency and did not live in the constituency.
Raphael said the COP needed changes and he was not seeing the touted "new politics" that was promised by the party's founding leader, Finance Minister Winston Dookeran. Raphael said the MP should live in the constituency. Asked if he had informed the COP and the UNC about his executive's decision, Raphael said they would know via the media.
He said it was important for the People's Partnership to stay together in the interest of the country. Raphael said the community centre, where yesterday's news conference was held, was dilapidated, and Douglas failed to make appropriate representation to have it refurbished.
Told that this was the second major resignation from the party in the past two months, and asked if he expected others in the party to take similar action, Raphael said he was not calling for that, and everyone would have to act the way he saw best. He said he decided to return to the UNC.
A resident of Surrey Village, Sandra Baptiste, said the community had been neglected by successive governments, including the People's Partnership administration. She said the people of Surrey were sorry after two years of PP governance. "We feel neglected," she told reporters at the same news conference.
She supported Raphael, saying the representation provided by the PP Government was inadequate. She said the villagers needed a new community centre and other basic amenities. "How many people are we going to vote into power and carry them around like tourists, and at the end of the whole thing, all they say is that they want a drink by the rum shop?" she said. Baptiste said pan icon Jit Samaroo was born in the area, which was a tourist attraction.
Party chairman responds
Responding late yesterday, the party's chairman, Joseph Toney, said: "I will want to see their resignations before I make a further comment."