Ani­ka Gumbs-San­di­ford

The bomb­shell an­nounce­ment by Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning to im­me­di­ate­ly be­gin nom­i­na­tions for gen­er­al elec­tions is a "strate­gic plan" to re­turn the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) back in­to Gov­ern­ment. Fol­low­ing screen­ing, and when the date for gen­er­al elec­tions is called, the prime min­is­ter has a min­i­mum of 35 days to give no­tice to the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion; fol­low­ing which he will in­struct Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards to dis­solve Par­lia­ment. Top par­ty mem­bers re­vealed to Sun­day Guardian last night that though the news to head di­rect­ly in­to gen­er­al elec­tions came as a shock to many, he had been hint­ing it for some time. The top par­ty of­fi­cial said: "The de­ci­sion is one that was giv­en care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion. There is some school of thought that if you go in­to a lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tion and lose it would have a snow­ball ef­fect and em­bold­en the Op­po­si­tion.

'UNC like crabs in bar­rel'

The par­ty hi­er­ar­chy did not feel the PNM was in a strong po­si­tion to win a lo­cal elec­tion. "If a lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tion is called now it would not be tak­en se­ri­ous­ly by PNM mem­bers. But by and large they are the nos­tal­gic ones who come out and vote. "A de­ci­sion was tak­en to pro­ceed with gen­er­al elec­tions be­cause if lo­cal gov­ern­ment elec­tions are called and when the re­sults emerge the PNM does not look good–and it ap­pears as if the par­ty is on the de­cline–it will give the Op­po­si­tion strength. It will be a shot in arm for the par­ty. An­oth­er top mem­ber said Man­ning sig­nalled the bell for gen­er­al elec­tions weeks ago, when he com­menced top brass meet­ings at Cas­ca­dia Ho­tel.

"At the last two meet­ings at Cas­ca­dia Ho­tel the prime min­is­ter re­quest­ed for every con­stituen­cy to sub­mit the names of area man­agers and fi­nance mangers; they are on­ly need­ed for a gen­er­al elec­tion. The writ­ing was on the wall all the time." Asked if the an­nounce­ment was fu­elled by the uni­ty plat­form be­tween the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress and the Con­gress of the Peo­ple, the top mem­ber said: "Every­thing was tak­en in­to con­sid­er­a­tion. They are like crabs in bar­rel fight­ing; they are not a threat to us. We are go­ing to cam­paign like we nev­er cam­paigned be­fore."

ABOVE: MP Kei­th Row­ley

Row­ley not like­ly to con­test

While the par­ty swings in­to full elec­tion mode yes­ter­day spec­u­la­tion was rife as to who will or will not get the par­ty's nod to con­test a seat. Par­ty sources said Diego Mar­tin West MP Kei­th Row­ley was not like­ly to con­test his seat. "This is be­cause he will have to ap­pear be­fore the screen­ing com­mit­tee on which Man­ning is the chair­man. He is out long time and he knows it," the source added. Brigid An­nisette-George, mean­while, has been asked to con­sid­er con­test­ing Diego Mar­tin West by some con­stituents. They are al­so look­ing at Min­is­ter of Cul­ture Mar­lene Mc Don­ald, MP for Port-of-Spain South. Row­ley could not be reached for com­ment. It is un­clear whether Port-of-Spain North/St Ann's West MP Gary Hunt will be se­lect­ed fol­low­ing his poor han­dling of the con­tro­ver­sy sur­round­ing the pur­chase of a $2 mil­lion na­tion­al flag.

Boynes, Pan­ther tipped to re­place In­dra

In­dra Sinanan Ojah-Ma­haraj, the sit­ting MP for To­co/San­gre Grande, is at log­ger­heads with her ex­ec­u­tive. "From day one she has been lock­ing horns with the ex­ec­u­tive; they can­not work with her at all," a par­ty of­fi­cial con­firmed. Ca­lyp­son­ian Er­ic "Pink Pan­ther" Tay­lor and Ronald Boynes, chair­man of the San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion are the names be­ing bandied about to re­place Ojah-Ma­haraj. "No one has got a chance to di­gest it as yet," Boynes said last night. "If as a re­sult of that you come to the no­tice of peo­ple then so be it." Boynes said he heard that he could pos­si­bly be screened but not from any­one in au­thor­i­ty. Tay­lor, mean­while, said the PM's an­nounce­ment took him by sur­prise: "Well, I know will of­fer my­self when the time comes for ser­vice, that it is pos­si­ble I will be screened." He would try to get ready "with the help of the Lord."