Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday has dismissed any suggestion that his meeting with Prime Minister Patrick Manning today will result in political deal on a specific national issue as ’nonsense’.

’I do not propose to waste time on irrelevant matters. I have met with the Prime Minister on previous occasions. It is the duty of the Prime Minister in a democratic country to meet with the Leader of the Opposition on matters of national importance,’ Panday said.

He did so in an interview with the Express yesterday on the eve of his meeting with Manning today at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s, in response to questions on the comments made by Congress of the People (COP) political leader Winston Dookeran in this week’s Sunday Express that the talks between the two political leaders would lead to a deal regarding the failed Hindu Credit Union (HCU).

In an article in yesterday’s Express, political scientist Prof Selwyn Ryan called the timing of today’s meeting between Manning and Panday ’curious’ and said he wondered ’whether Dookeran in his statement does not in fact have a point.’

’First of all, I would say there are too many real problems in the country to be concentrating on nonsense, peripheral and irrelevant matters,’ Panday said when asked about Dookeran’s and Ryan’s comments.

Panday said that there are people in this country who ’don’t have water to drink, they have problems with flooding, their roads can’t be fixed,’ and added that these were the issues he wanted to focus on and not any questions or suspicions as to whether both he and Manning will be working out an accommodation or agreement on any particular matter of public interest.

The Office of the Prime Minister, in a release issued on Saturday, announced that Manning will be meeting with Panday today to discuss issues of national importance, ’namely crime and constitutional reform.’

Panday yesterday acknowledged that one of the two main items on the agenda of today’s meeting, constitutional reform, cannot occur without the support of the Opposition since any replacement of the existing Constitution with a new one requires a three-quarters vote of the House of Representatives and a two-thirds vote of the Senate.

’I believe that there is need for constitutional reform and there can’t be constitutional reform unless there is some kind of dialogue between the people and the Government. You need the vote of both sides,’ Panday said.

He said he will be taking with him his own suggestions for dealing with crime and constitutional reform to today’s meeting with Manning.

’I have taken notes on it. I will be walking with my notes,’ Panday said.

Insisting he cannot predict what the outcome of today’s talks with Manning will be, Panday said he planned to speak to the media about them afterwards as he ’indicated to the Prime Minister it will not be a secret meeting.’