Richard Lord

April 7, 2010

T&T will go to the polls to elect a new Gov­ern­ment in 38 days, on Mon­day, May 24, 2010. This, as Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning's of­fice is­sued a two-para­graph re­lease an­nounc­ing the elec­tion date short­ly af­ter noon yes­ter­day. It is be­ing held more than two years ear­li­er than it was con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly due in 2012.

The last time Man­ning called an ear­ly elec­tion, in 1995, the PNM lost the Gov­ern­ment to the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress, then led by Bas­deo Pan­day. Yes­ter­day's an­nounce­ment end­ed wide­spread spec­u­la­tion about, and in­creas­ing calls for, the 2010 elec­tion date. "Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning to­day ad­vised Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards to is­sue a writ of elec­tion, ap­point­ing Mon­day 24, May 2010 as the date of the gen­er­al elec­tion.

"Nom­i­na­tion Day is Mon­day, 3 May 2010," the re­lease said. It added: "On April 8, 2010, Patrick Man­ning, Prime Min­is­ter, ad­vised His Ex­cel­len­cy George Maxwell Richards, Pres­i­dent, to dis­solve Par­lia­ment in ac­cor­dance with Sec­tion 68 of the Con­sti­tu­tion." Chief Elec­tions Of­fi­cer Howard Cayenne said more than one mil­lion cit­i­zens have been reg­is­tered to vote. He said the pe­ri­od of vot­er reg­is­tra­tion runs un­til next Tues­day.