COP meets on run-off Sunday

Congress of the People (COP) members who are concerned that Government’s run-off poll proposal might eliminate third parties in elections will have a chance to air their views at a National Council meeting on Sunday. COP chairman Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan said yesterday the party’s national executive, which met on the run-off and other government constitutional reform issues on Wednesday night, agreed to put the matters before the party’s council.

Seepersad-Bachan said she herself had not given a view on the controversial run-off poll issue and would not until council members had commented fully on it. COP leader Prakash Ramadhar, head of Government’s Constitution reform team, has also been silent on the legislation. Yesterday, COP sources said a number of members who had steadfastly followed the commission’s various consultations were upset that the run-off poll idea was not aired at those consultations.