Ken Ali

Po­lit­i­cal ac­tion was at fever pitch last night af­ter Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning turned grand charge in­to elec­tion ac­tion. The rul­ing Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) con­tin­ued screen­ing apace of gen­er­al elec­tion can­di­dates at Bal­isi­er House amid spec­u­la­tion that the par­ty would field sev­er­al new faces at the polls. The Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) top brass hud­dled at Rien­zi Com­plex, Cou­va, and held in­tense dis­cus­sions on op­po­si­tion uni­ty, elec­tion strat­e­gy and pos­si­ble can­di­dates. Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) leader Win­ston Dook­er­an was wing­ing back to T&T, via New York, af­ter a two-week lec­tur­ing stint in In­dia, as his col­leagues met un­der act­ing leader Wendy Lee Yuen.

To­ba­go Or­gan­i­sa­tion of the Peo­ple (TOP), which is like­ly to form an al­liance with UNC and COP for the two seats in the sis­ter isle, be­gan crank­ing up its elec­tion ma­chin­ery. The ex­cit­ed po­lit­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ties were mount­ed as Man­ning, in a dra­mat­ic move, set the stage for a gen­er­al elec­tion mid­way in­to his five-year elec­toral term. Man­ning, who re­cent­ly trum­pet­ed a snap elec­tion be­fore a par­ty con­ven­tion, made good his promise in ask­ing Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards to dis­solve Par­lia­ment at mid­night last night. Un­der the coun­try's con­sti­tu­tion, the Prime Min­is­ter must en­sure a gen­er­al elec­tion is held in no few­er than 35 days and no more than 90 days.

Man­ning's abrupt ac­tion yes­ter­day prompt­ed spec­u­la­tion about whether he moved to pre-empt an Op­po­si­tion-spon­sored no-con­fi­dence mo­tion that had been sched­uled for de­bate to­day in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said last night that she had planned to bring fresh ev­i­dence of wrong­do­ing in­volv­ing cer­tain op­er­a­tives of Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion of T&T (Ude­cott). Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she would now make the de­c­la­ra­tions on the hus­tings. The elec­tion could well see the end of the par­lia­men­tary ca­reer of for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day, who has been MP for Cou­va North since 1976.

Pan­day, the sec­ond longest-serv­ing MP–Man­ning was first elect­ed to Par­lia­ment in 1971–has been at odds with Per­sad-Bisses­sar since her elec­tion as UNC boss on Jan­u­ary 24. There is al­so un­cer­tain­ty about Pan­day loy­al­ists–Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj, Kelvin Ram­nath and Mikela Pan­day. Diego Mar­tin West MP Dr Kei­th Row­ley, who was sacked as a min­is­ter in 2008 af­ter be­ing ac­cused of "wa­jang be­hav­iour," last night an­nounced he would face the PNM Screen­ing Com­mit­tee to­mor­row. There is keen jock­ey­ing for PNM can­di­da­cies, as sev­er­al in­cum­bents are fac­ing chal­lenges be­fore the par­ty's screen­ing com­mit­tee. Man­ning, who is in his mid-60s, is ex­pect­ed to face off with Per­sad-Bisses­sar, 58, who is the first fe­male prime min­is­te­r­i­al can­di­date in T&T's his­to­ry. The last gen­er­al elec­tion was held on No­vem­ber 7, 2007

What the Con­sti­tu­tion says

68

(1) The Pres­i­dent, act­ing in ac­cor­dance with the ad­vice of the Prime Min­is­ter, may at any time pro­rogue or dis­solve Par­lia­ment.

(2) Sub­ject to sub-sec­tion (3), Par­lia­ment, un­less soon­er dis­solved, shall con­tin­ue for five years from the date of its first sit­ting af­ter any dis­so­lu­tion, and shall then stand dis­solved.

(3) At any time when Trinidad and To­ba­go is at war, Par­lia­ment may ex­tend the pe­ri­od of five years spec­i­fied in sub-sec­tion (2) for not more than 12 months at a time; so how­ev­er that the life of Par­lia­ment shall not be ex­tend­ed un­der this sub-sec­tion for more than five years.

(4) Where, be­tween a dis­so­lu­tion of Par­lia­ment and the next en­su­ing gen­er­al elec­tion of mem­bers to the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, an emer­gency aris­es of such a na­ture that in the opin­ion of the Prime Min­is­ter it is nec­es­sary for the two Hous­es to be sum­moned be­fore that gen­er­al elec­tion can be held, the Pres­i­dent, act­ing in ac­cor­dance with the ad­vice of the Prime Min­is­ter, may sum­mon the two Hous­es of the pre­ced­ing Par­lia­ment, but the elec­tion of mem­bers of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives shall pro­ceed and the Par­lia­ment that has been sum­moned shall, if not soon­er dis­solved, again stand dis­solved on the day on which the gen­er­al elec­tion is held.

69

(1) A gen­er­al elec­tion of mem­bers of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives shall be held at such time with­in three months af­ter every dis­so­lu­tion of Par­lia­ment as the Pres­i­dent, act­ing in ac­cor­dance with the ad­vice of the Prime Min­is­ter, shall ap­point.

(2) As soon as prac­ti­ca­ble af­ter every gen­er­al elec­tion, the Pres­i­dent shall pro­ceed un­der sec­tion 40 to the ap­point­ment of Sen­a­tors.

(3) Where a va­can­cy oc­curs in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives with­in the first four years of the life of the Par­lia­ment a by-elec­tion shall be held to fill such va­can­cy not lat­er than 90 days from the date of the an­nounce­ment by the Speak­er of the va­can­cy.