Gail Alexan­der

The rul­ing PNM and the unit­ed Op­po­si­tion force (UNC/TOP/MSJ) are both pro­ject­ing to launch their re­spec­tive can­di­dates and man­i­festos next week­end, ac­cord­ing to of­fi­cials of each side. Pt Fortin's Bor­ough Day cel­e­bra­tions al­so take place over that week­end. Nom­i­na­tion Day for the May 24 gen­er­al elec­tion is May 3. Both sides kick in­to high cam­paign­ing gear with night­ly meet­ings af­ter that date. At last night's Fyz­abad meet­ing, the Op­po­si­tion launched its new uni­ty plat­form with its four part­ners–the COP, To­ba­go's TOP, NJAC and MSJ.

Yes­ter­day, UNC vice-chair­man Dr Fuad Khan said the Op­po­si­tion force had no date for the launch of can­di­dates and man­i­festo yet. He es­ti­mat­ed the can­di­dates "might be pre­sent­ed around or af­ter Nom­i­na­tion Day." COP deputy leader Wendy Lee Yuen said a date for launch­ing their can­di­dates and man­i­festo was among items dis­cussed at Tues­day's ne­go­ti­at­ing meet­ing and was to be fi­nalised. Sun­day May 2 is a pro­ject­ed ten­ta­tive date for the unit­ed force to an­nounce its full slate and can­di­dates with night­ly meet­ings planned for af­ter that date as well as big ral­lies. The venue for the Op­po­si­tion launch was still be­ing worked out.

But UNC of­fi­cials said yes­ter­day that Mid Cen­tre Mall in Ch­agua­nas was like­ly to be "the on­ly venue big enough for the thou­sands that are ex­pect­ed to at­tend." (sic) Lee Yuen said the Op­po­si­tion ne­go­ti­at­ing team would re­port back soon on the of­fi­cial launch date. Last night in Fyz­abad, the unit­ed force pre­sent­ed their com­plet­ed agree­ment part­ner­ship doc­u­ment which lead­ers of the five groups signed. Mean­while, the rul­ing PNM is ex­pect­ed to launch its can­di­dates and man­i­festo on the first week­end of May al­so, of­fi­cials pro­ject­ed yes­ter­day. PNM PRO Jer­ry Narace said he could not give a date since the is­sue was still be­ing worked on. PNM of­fi­cials said the pro­ject­ed time date al­so be Sun­day May 2, since the rul­ing par­ty did not want to launch on May 1 which was the high­point of Bor­ough Day cel­e­bra­tions.