Gail Alexan­der

While there is no va­can­cy for Prime Min­is­ter now, if there is a va­can­cy or an in­ter­nal Par­lia­men­tary “coup,” the rel­e­vant as­pi­rant can sub­mit suf­fi­cient names to show they have the sup­port of the ma­jor­i­ty of MPs, say Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) par­ty sources.

This, af­ter in­ter­nal di­vi­sion in the PNM Gov­ern­ment prompt­ed Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty leader Phillip Alexan­der to call on Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo to ap­point Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar as prime min­is­ter.

Alexan­der, via a so­cial me­dia post, said Per­sad-Bisses­sar now com­mands 19 MPs in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tive to the 11 PNM MPs who on Mon­day vot­ed in a Par­lia­men­tary cau­cus for Min­is­ter in the Prime Min­is­ter’s Of­fice Stu­art Young to be­come prime min­is­ter af­ter Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley re­signs. Alexan­der not­ed that nine oth­er PNM MPs sup­port­ed Plan­ning Min­is­ter Pen­ne­lope Beck­les.

Alexan­der said Sec­tion 76a of the Con­sti­tu­tion out­lines how a prime min­is­ter is ap­point­ed - that the per­son who is leader of the par­ty that com­mands the great­est ma­jor­i­ty of sup­port among the MPs in the House shall be elect­ed Prime Min­is­ter and in­vit­ed to form a gov­ern­ment.

He added, “Sec­tion 76b says where there is no clear leader of that par­ty (which is the case now with the PNM where sup­port for Stu­art Young and Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has di­vid­ed the PNM along the line of 11 MPs sup­port­ing Young and nine sup­port­ing Beck­les) there are 19 MPs sup­port­ing Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

“And ac­cord­ing to Sec­tion 76b of the Con­sti­tu­tion, the Pres­i­dent is sup­posed to call on Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to be­come the prime min­is­ter of T&T and to form a gov­ern­ment.”

Alexan­der added, “The out­go­ing Prime Min­is­ter Kei­th Row­ley has, I be­lieve, sev­en days in which to ac­cept that re­al­i­ty or to dis­solve the Par­lia­ment. That’s where we’re at ... Madame Pres­i­dent, poll the Par­lia­ment and de­cide which mem­ber com­mands the sup­port of the great­est num­ber of MPs in the House and call on that per­son to form a gov­ern­ment.”

Alexan­der claimed, “Right now, the per­son who com­mands the great­est num­ber of MPs in the House is Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar. Sec­tion 76b of the Con­sti­tu­tion is clear. Madame Pres­i­dent, ap­point Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar as prime min­is­ter...”

But po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Hamid Ghany said Alexan­der’s ar­gu­ment wasn’t valid “since 21 is the mag­ic num­ber and (Per­sad-Bisses­sar) does not have that. They have to go to the Par­lia­ment with at least 21 sig­na­tures. Al­so, there is still no va­can­cy.”

The is­sue, how­ev­er, has gar­nered at­ten­tion in the UNC. Top par­ty sources said, “The Con­sti­tu­tion gives the pres­i­dent sev­er­al op­tions. This sce­nario is one of sev­er­al and is per­haps the least re­mote­ly pos­si­ble one. The PNM as in­di­vid­u­als and as a body have not spo­ken.”

They added, “There is no va­can­cy. No­body has re­signed from any­thing. But every­one’s got­ten dis­tract­ed by Row­ley and his hi­jinks. There is no stale­mate in the PNM ei­ther. The UNC has stayed away from PNM’s bac­cha­nal.”

“The pres­i­dent is a for­mer PNM MP and PNM ac­tivist. The first re­quire­ment is that if there is a va­can­cy or an in­ter­nal Par­lia­men­tary ‘coup’, the rel­e­vant as­pi­rant can sub­mit suf­fi­cient names to show that he has sup­port of the ma­jor­i­ty. The Pres­i­dent can al­so, of her own vo­li­tion, se­lect the per­son if the cir­cum­stances so war­rant it to fill a va­can­cy. None now ex­ists.”

UNC sources added, “The PM and po­lit­i­cal leader of the PNM is still Dr Row­ley and he ac­tu­al­ly has all the trumps. De­spite the fact that can­di­dates are named as PL, he can re­place them. As Prime Min­is­ter, he can change min­is­ters, em­pow­er­ing or un­em­pow­er­ing. The per­mu­ta­tions are mul­ti­ple. What the re­port­ed cir­cum­stances in the PNM shows, how­ev­er, is the true.

What the re­port­ed cir­cum­stances in the PNM shows how­ev­er is the true dic­ta­to­r­i­al ten­den­cies of Row­ley and Young, two per­sons whose ac­tions demon­strate star­tling sim­i­lar­i­ties in per­son­al­i­ty.”