Dookeran, Panday to meet again

Dookeran was unavailable for comment yesterday but his communications officer Nirad Tewarie said Dookeran and Panday could meet again some time within the next two to three days.

Tewarie said following their first meeting last Friday, both men agreed to make contact with each other early this week to arrange a time and venue for a second meeting. He said because Panday was addressing yesterday’s UNC national congress in Couva and Dookeran had some Emancipation Day functions to attend yesterday, it would have been difficult for them to meet. Tewarie added that an agreement was reached between Dookeran and Panday that they would speak early this week to determine when next they would meet.

Asked whether Dookeran planned to attend yesterday’s national congress, Tewarie said the UNC leader did not inform him that he would be going to Couva and thought it was “unlikely” that Dookeran would be at the congress.

Contacted before yesterday’s congress, Panday said Dookeran would contact him to arrange their next meeting.

Since returning from a lengthy stay abroad earlier this month, Panday urged the UNC’s Women’s Arm to suspend a no-confidence motion filed by the party’s national executive against Dookeran so that he could hold reconciliation talks with the opposing factions in the party. Panday and Dookeran have been tight-lipped about what was discussed at last Friday’s meeting but sources have claimed that Dookeran insisted that all of the party’s leadership issues be resolved as a matter of urgency.

UNC deputy leader Jack Warner has expressed support for Panday’s reconciliation efforts but also concern that they may amount to nothing if Dookeran is not serious about healing divisions in the party. The UNC holds another of its Monday night people’s forum meeting in Longdenville at 7 pm tonight.

The feature speakers include Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Warner, Couva South MP Kelvin Ramnath and former government minister Trevor Sudama.