Kamla snubs Dookeran overture

Dookeran made the overture during last Friday’s sitting of Parliament, Persad-Bissessar told a news conference at Rienzi Complex, Couva on Wednesday.

“Dookeran told me that he could not work with the executive and urged me to leave the party and join him. But I told him that I could not do that because I was elected in the position that I currently hold,” Persad-Bissessar told reporters, after the UNC executive passed a no-confidence motion in Dookeran.

The action has set the stage for the executive to seek the membership view on whether to expel or suspend Dookeran from the party.

Persad-Bissessar described Wednesday night’s resolution as a watershed day for the UNC..

She said she made several attempts to speak with Dookeran in a bid to unite the opposing factions for the sake of the party.

However, Persad-Bissessar revealed she was approached by Dookeran for five minutes, outside the Red House at the end of the parliamentary session when he asked her to join forces with him. She declined. Persad-Bissessar said Dookeran contacted her on Tuesday and again asked her if she had given his request any thought.

“I indicated to him that I could not and that I disagreed with him and his faction. This is the truth as I remember it and as I recall it. I kept self restraint on this,” the Opposition leader said.

Despite the no-confidence vote passed by the executive, Persad-Bissessar felt she and Dookeran should have led the UNC into the next general elections.

“We are not booting out Dookeran. He has distanced and separated himself from this party and therefore now it is up to the membership to make the decision whether they would like him to continue as political leader.”

The national executive will move to convene a youth congress on July 16. The women’s congress will be held on July 17; the national congress on July 31. A final meeting takes place on August 13.