Shas­tri Boodan

UNC leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day adopt­ed a line of her for­mer po­lit­i­cal gu­ru Bas­deo Pan­day. "Pol­i­tics is a civilised form of war," said Per­sad-Bisses­sar, in ex­plain­ing why de­tails of the agree­ment be­tween Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) and Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) would not im­me­di­ate­ly be re­vealed. She said she did not want po­lit­i­cal "en­e­mies" to know de­tails of the agree­ment. She said the "nit­ty-grit­ty" de­tails are still be­ing worked out.

She hailed the dis­cus­sions and called the elec­tion date "lib­er­a­tion day." COP leader Win­ston Dook­er­an said his par­ty was com­mit­ted to find a work­able ap­proach to is­sues be­tween both par­ties. Both were speak­ing at the Dou­ble Drag­on Restau­rant in Cou­va yes­ter­day, to for­malise a uni­ty ac­cord. Dook­er­an said the elec­tion would prove to be an epic mo­ment in the coun­try's his­to­ry and would cre­ate the av­enue to re­build the na­tion. He was con­fi­dent that the COP-UNC team would win the May 24 elec­tion.

He said that "the par­ty has been di­vid­ed for too long."

The Op­po­si­tion Leader said she was glad to hear that Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning choose May 24 as the day for the gen­er­al elec­tion. Said said May 24 is "lib­er­a­tion day." She said it was on Jan­u­ary 24 that she was elect­ed as the UNC leader and on Feb­ru­ary 24 as the Op­po­si­tion Leader. Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the UNC planned on meet­ing with oth­er op­po­si­tion groups to strength­en the uni­fi­ca­tion process.