Gail Alexan­der

UNC deputy leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is the cred­i­ble can­di­date for new UNC lead­er­ship for the fu­ture, COP leader Win­ston Dook­er­an said yes­ter­day. Dook­er­an was re­ply­ing to ques­tions about a call from the floor raised at UNC's Con­gress on Sun­day in which a mem­ber, re­port­ed­ly named Ab­dul, from the Ca­roni Cen­tral con­stituen­cy, called on UNC leader Bas­deo Pan­day to step down and for Per­sad-Bisses­sar to be in­ter­im UNC leader. Dook­er­an said one of the in­ter­est­ing com­ments com­ing out of the UNC Con­gress, showed there was sen­ti­ment in the UNC "that they need a new lead­er­ship for the fu­ture."

I think Kam­la is the cred­i­ble can­di­date for that op­tion if it were to ma­te­ri­alise," Dook­er­an added. Asked if he al­so viewed Per­sad-Bisses­sar as a pos­si­ble suit­able leader for a unit­ed UNC/COP arrange­ment, Dook­er­an said that was spec­u­la­tion "down the road." He said things would take their course. Dook­er­an said he was not dis­cour­aged from pur­su­ing the uni­ty process by Pan­day's crit­i­cisms of the COP which Pan­day made on Sun­day. Pan­day had al­lud­ed to cer­tain de­mands with­in COP for ad­just­ments by UNC in or­der for the uni­ty arrange­ment to take place. Dook­er­an said the uni­ty mat­ter was a process.