Malis­sa Lara

It's a dis­trac­tion! That's the cry from three Op­po­si­tion back­benchers, re­spond­ing to Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning's an­nounce­ment, yes­ter­day, of an im­me­di­ate screen­ing of can­di­dates for the next gen­er­al elec­tion. Op­po­si­tion MPs, Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj, Kelvin Ram­nath and Bas­deo Pan­day, did not be­lieve Man­ning's call, made dur­ing the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment's Spe­cial Con­ven­tion at Ch­aguara­mas Con­ven­tion Cen­tre. Tabaquite MP Ma­haraj said: "I do not be­lieve Mr Man­ning is go­ing to call any gen­er­al elec­tion." When asked if he would be go­ing up to be screened, he said the ques­tion of Op­po­si­tion mem­bers go­ing up for their seats, in his view, did not arise.

"I be­lieve Mr Man­ning has an­nounced (the screen­ing) in or­der to cause some dis­ar­ray in op­pos­ing camps." Cou­va North MP Pan­day said:

"I do not know if I will be con­test­ing. It's a de­ci­sion I have not tak­en." He said Man­ning's state­ment of screen­ing did not mean or say any­thing. "It does not mean there is go­ing to be an elec­tion. He is us­ing the old tech­nique of dis­trac­tion to get at­ten­tion for some­thing." Kelvin Ram­nath, MP for Cou­va South, said Man­ning was bluff­ing.

"I am not sure that Man­ning is speak­ing the truth." He, too, did not be­lieve that the prime min­is­ter would call a gen­er­al elec­tion. He felt Man­ning was re­spond­ing to the crit­ics. As far as be­ing a can­di­date, Ram­nath was un­cer­tain about his de­ci­sion. "It is too ear­ly for me to make a de­ci­sion. I'm not go­ing to de­pend on what hap­pens in the UNC and how I view the UNC, in terms of get­ting in­to gov­ern­ment."