Richard Lord

Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er says ques­tions about the non-ap­point­ment of Con­gress of the Peo­ple leader and Fi­nance Min­is­ter Win­ston Dook­er­an to act as Prime Min­is­ter should be put to Dook­er­an and not him. "Ask him, don't ask me. Keep try­ing," Warn­er added. Warn­er said that dur­ing a ques­tion and an­swer ses­sion on the steps of the Hall of Jus­tice yes­ter­day. Warn­er said he ac­cept­ed with hu­mil­i­ty, Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­ci­sion to have him to act while she is out of the coun­try from this week­end to Ju­ly 12.

Many peo­ple spec­u­lat­ed that Dook­er­an who was the most se­nior min­is­ter in the Cab­i­net was like­ly to get the nod over Warn­er. Warn­er said be­cause of the act­ing ap­point­ment, he would not be at­tend­ing the World Cup fi­nals in South Africa next week. Warn­er said con­cerns about his abil­i­ty to car­ry out the ad­di­tion­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ties should be raised with ei­ther the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al or the Prime Min­is­ter.

"All I know is what­ev­er they have asked me to do is le­git (le­git­i­mate) and with­in the law." And Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar came out in de­fence of Warn­er's act­ing ap­point­ment yes­ter­day. Speak­ing with re­porters dur­ing a news brief­ing in a Com­mit­tee Room in the Par­lia­ment Build­ing, she said it was not a mat­ter of who wasn't cho­sen but who was. She said: "Mr Warn­er is the chair­man of our par­ty. Mr Warn­er is the man who won the high­est num­ber of votes in the coun­try. I think he is ca­pa­ble and well able to act in the po­si­tion at this time." (RL)