Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

The Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP), led by Wat­son Duke, will launch its can­di­dates and man­i­festo next Mon­day—and the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), which launched its can­di­dates last Sun­day, hasn’t said when its man­i­festo will be launched.

This as po­lit­i­cal par­ties height­en prepa­ra­tions for the April 28 Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

PDP leader Duke con­firmed his par­ty’s launch date yes­ter­day. Duke is con­test­ing To­ba­go East and his To­ba­go West can­di­date will be an­nounced on Mon­day.

While the PNM launched its can­di­dates last Sun­day, mi­nus an an­nounce­ment of the elec­tion date, which was giv­en on Tues­day, PNM gen­er­al sec­re­tary Fos­ter Cum­mings didn’t re­ply to queries yes­ter­day on when the PNM’s man­i­festo will be launched. Oth­er PNM of­fi­cials, asked about a pos­si­ble elec­tion theme, point­ed to Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young’s re­peat­ed em­pha­sis yes­ter­day on writ­ing “the next chap­ter,” adding that PNM’s theme will like­ly be “The Next Chap­ter.”

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) of­fi­cials re­it­er­at­ed that they’d said re­cent­ly that can­di­dates will be launched at the par­ty’s meet­ings and that their man­i­festo is ready for pre­sen­ta­tion. They al­so re­it­er­at­ed that UNC leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has been re­veal­ing man­i­festo plans at meet­ings since last year in­clud­ing in her 2025 Bud­get re­ply and has con­tin­ued do­ing so.

The Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) has an­nounced that Nom­i­na­tion Day is April 4.

The UNC is fi­nal­is­ing talks with the Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) on can­di­dates. That’s ex­pect­ed to be com­plet­ed by end of the week. The COP has been look­ing at cer­tain seats, in­clud­ing in the East-West cor­ri­dor, COP sources said.

The UNC’s coali­tion of in­ter­ests part­ner, Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty (PEP), will launch the first four of its can­di­dates to­mor­row at a ral­ly in Bam­boo Vil­lage, Val­sayn.

HOPE chair­man Steve Al­varez said that a de­ci­sion on the launch of the par­ty’s man­i­festo and eight can­di­dates will be tak­en at a meet­ing of the HOPE/NTA/CRN coali­tion to­mor­row (Sat).

“Our man­i­festo has been ready for months,” Al­varez added.

Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance (NTA) leader Gary Grif­fith al­so said a de­ci­sion will be done at that meet­ing on fi­nal­is­ing can­di­dates and by next week, they should have all names. He said NTA has al­ready an­nounced about 12 or 13 can­di­dates and HOPE and CRN al­so have a few more can­di­dates to se­lect and an­nounce.

Pa­tri­ot­ic Front leader Mick­ela Pan­day’s Face­book page re­it­er­at­ed her par­ty’s po­si­tion that it’s prepar­ing to con­test all 41 seats and so far has of­fi­cial­ly an­nounced 14 can­di­dates. The can­di­dates for the oth­er 27 seats—in­clud­ing the con­stituen­cy where Pan­day will con­test—and its man­i­festo will be an­nounced “soon.”

The To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) launch­es its To­ba­go West can­di­date and its To­ba­go East can­di­date, David Thomas, on Sun­day. The In­no­v­a­tive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Al­liance is al­so ex­pect­ed to launch “soon.”

For­mer PNM min­is­ter Karen Nunez-Tesheira, who has re­signed from HOPE, said Wednes­day she had no in­ten­tion of join­ing any par­ty but will con­tin­ue speak­ing at fo­rums on the po­lit­i­cal sit­u­a­tion as she’s been do­ing.