Richard Lord

Op­po­si­tion Leader Bas­deo Pan­day says he does not ex­pect the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress' po­si­tion on the re­ten­tion of the Privy Coun­cil to change, af­ter his meet­ing with Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning to­mor­row morn­ing. Pan­day said this in an in­ter­view yes­ter­day. Man­ning has in­vit­ed Pan­day for closed-door talks at the Prime Min­is­ter's res­i­dence, St Ann's. Man­ning had promised more than a year ago that he in­tend­ed to hold dis­cus­sions with Pan­day to dis­cuss, among oth­er things, the need to have the Caribbean Court of Jus­tice re­place the Privy Coun­cil as the coun­try's fi­nal court of ap­peal.

Pan­day said yes­ter­day that he can see no rea­son why his par­ty's po­si­tion on that is­sue should change dur­ing the talks with Man­ning. Pan­day on­ly last month iden­ti­fied sev­er­al rea­sons for his con­tin­ued ob­jec­tion to hav­ing the CCJ as this coun­try's high­est court of ap­peal. He said he court lacked con­fi­dence and should be made an in­ter­me­di­ate court in­stead. But Pan­day said he is at­tend­ing the talks "with an open mind."