Akash Sama­roo

Se­nior Re­porter

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

De­spite not re­ceiv­ing a min­is­te­r­i­al port­fo­lio, Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) leader Prakash Ra­mad­har says he does not feel slight­ed by the Prime Min­is­ter and sought to as­sure that mat­ters are in the works.

The COP was part of the UNC’s “Coali­tion of In­ter­ests” for the April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion along­side the Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty, the Oil­field Work­ers’ Trade Union (OW­TU), the Laven­tille Out­reach for Ver­ti­cal En­rich­ment (LOVE) move­ment and oth­er trade unions.

The COP con­test­ed two seats as part of the coali­tion, al­beit un­der its own ban­ner for St Ann’s East and Port-of-Spain South.

How­ev­er, the PEP’s leader Phillip Alexan­der was ap­point­ed Min­is­ter in the Hous­ing Min­istry; Ernesto Ke­sar, vice pres­i­dent of the OW­TU was placed as a Min­is­ter in the En­er­gy Min­istry and trade union­ist Clyde El­der was ap­point­ed as a Min­is­ter in the Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­istry. Ra­mad­har and the COP have so far been seem­ing­ly left out.

But the COP leader, who was speak­ing dur­ing a news con­fer­ence yes­ter­day at the par­ty’s Curepe head­quar­ters, said he is not trou­bled at all.

“There were ne­go­ti­a­tions, there were agree­ments and mat­ters are in the works at this point in time. And I ex­pect, as I know per­son­al­ly, the Prime Min­is­ter, to me, has al­ways kept her word. So that is a mat­ter that will man­i­fest it­self in due course,” Ra­mad­har ex­plained.

He added, “Let me in­di­cate that in terms of get­ting in­volved in pol­i­tics, it has nev­er been for per­son­al gain and am­bi­tion. But hav­ing said that, there is a lev­el of re­spect that I know the Prime Min­is­ter would al­ways live up to.”

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar still has five sen­ate spots avail­able from the Gov­ern­ment’s al­lot­ment of 16. Guardian Me­dia asked Ra­mad­har if he would be of­fered one of them.

“I will not com­ment on any is­sue at this time, but rest as­sured that the coun­try will know in due course where we are,” he said.

Asked if he felt slight­ed in any way af­ter not be­ing made a mem­ber of the Cab­i­net hav­ing served un­der Per­sad-Bisses­sar as Min­is­ter of Le­gal Af­fairs, Ra­mad­har con­tend­ed, “Not at all, I feel elat­ed in fact. And I can tell you, wher­ev­er I’ve been since elec­tion day, peo­ple are com­ing up and con­grat­u­lat­ing (me) and say­ing ‘thanks’. They are feel­ing a sense of light­ness, a sense of free­dom. In fact, a friend of mine who is a re­li­gious PNM told me the very thing, he got up and all his fam­i­ly is say­ing things are brighter and lighter. So, I asked, ‘but what about you?’ and he said, ‘yea, me too’.”