Attempts to sabotage COP, says Leader

“It is a clear and clandestine disinformation that has been undertaken to wreck the COP and its candidates.

They are walking around and telling people, house to house, do not vote for the COP members because they have given the seats to the UNC.

This is a patent lie,” COP’s political leader Dr. Anirudh Mahabir announced yesterday.

He made the announcement during a press conference held at the headquarters of the party located at Operation’s Centre, Charlieville, Chaguanas.

Mahabir said that “reliable information” of this “major threat” came to light as of Thursday night with the most complaints from the Tunapuna- Piarco municipality.

Of the 14 Municipalities, the COP has a total of nine candidates from four Corporations.

Six are contesting seats in the Tunapuna/ Piarco Regional Corporation, one in the San Fernando City Corporation and one each in the San Juan- Laventille and Siparia Regional Corporations.

The political leader yesterday noted that the COP believes that such a rumour, geared at benefiting “another party”, is an act of vandalism.

He added that in his mind, it borders on illegality.

The COP was among four political parties which formed the previous Peoples’ Partnership coalition government headed by the UNC’s Political Leader, Kamla Persad- Bissessar.

Yesterday at the press conference Mahabir insisted that the COP is an independent party, fighting this election on its own and thus is not associated with any other political party.

“We know that the UNC is in great fear of losing this elections.

But there is a line beyond which you do not cross, and we in the COP will always remain above that line...

We are in this election not because we hate the UNC, not because we hate the PNM but because think that the COP can make a difference in the politics of T&T,” Mahabir said.

Mahabir said that all voters should be given an honest effort to be able to vote for who they want to vote for.

The political leader charged that in 2007 “at about 10 pm on the eve of the General Elections”, public announcements were being made that the COP had given up. That, he said, was also a lie simply to sway voters not to vote for the COP.

Mahabir called on supporters to vote for their respective COP candidate adding that “people are fed-up with the PNM”. He promised that over the weekend, the COP will be in the districts in which there are candidates.

The party is convinced that come Monday night, it will “come home with several seats”.

Also present at the conference yesterday were Deputy Political Leaders, Dr Sharon-Ann Gopaul- McNicol and Clyde Weatherhead together with chairman Jamieson Bahadur, among others.