No confidence in political leader

Political leader Winston Dookeran is expected to fire a legal salvo at the UNC executive today after it passed a no-confidence vote against him during a meeting at Rienzi Complex, Couva last night.

Before the executive met, the Dookeran camp had signalled plans to challenge any decision the executive took to oust the political leader.

Dookeran skipped the executive meeting to attend his own public meeting at Macaulay Park, Railway Road, California, within the Couva South constituency for which Kelvin Ramnath is the parliamentary representative. The executive met in closed-door session after the parliamentary arm held its caucus which Dookeran also failed to attend.

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, deputy political leader Jack Warner, who returned to Trinidad on Monday from the World Cup football tournament in Germany which he attended in his capacity as FIFA vice president, fellow deputy leader Wade Mark and chairman Vasant Bharath turned out to the meeting which concluded shortly after 8 pm. A press conference followed.

Persad-Bissessar said the executive had no desire to boot out anyone, indicating that the motion did not include expulsion or suspension. That decision would be made by the wider membership based on a series of meetings with the youth, women’s and national congress between July 16 and August 13, she explained.

“Winston Dookeran placed himself in that position. He separated himself from the party,” Persad-Bissessar told the press conference.

The executive has been at loggerheads with Dookeran since he began holding his own public cottage meetings which the party’s leadership claimed was done without their approval. The executive has accused Dookeran of running a parallel organisation within the party. The no-confidence resolution stated Dookeran was unwilling to work with the executive and “demonstrated his inability to lead the party to win the next general election.”

“Members of the rank and file of the party have expressed dissatisfaction with Winston Dookeran continuing to hold the office of political leader of the party. The national executive of the party has on numerous occasions brought to the attention of the political leader instances of his failure to perform his duties as political leader and the adverse effects these are having on the image of the party and its chance to win the next general election,” the resolution stated.

The executive said Dookeran has not denied that the funding of this “parallel organisation” was provided by persons and, or, organisations intimately linked to the PNM. Earlier Ramnath, who attended the parliamentary caucus but is not a member of the executive, said it was up to Dookeran to decide how he would lead the party.

“I don’t expect that the UNC is going to suspend or attempt to fire Dookeran. Political matters are settled on the street not in a board room. The time will come when Dookeran will decide for himself whether he can run a party without MPs and an executive.”

The UNC split first originated when the Dookeran camp opposed the outcome of the executive elections with a faction backing former chairman and Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday. Things came to a head when Bharath emerged as vice chairman after a recount displaced the initial winner St Joseph MP Gerald Yetming, who has since resigned from the party.

The division intensified when Persad-Bissessar was picked by the UNC MPs to be the Opposition Leader over Dookeran after Panday was found guilty of corruption charges which he has since appealed.