Gail Alexan­der

A for­mer Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress MP is tipped to be the Min­is­ter of Trade, In­vest­ment and Tourism, ac­cord­ing to par­ty sources.

No one was an­nounced for the post when the Cab­i­net was sworn in last Sat­ur­day, but a min­is­ter is ex­pect­ed to be named this week.

UNC sources yes­ter­day said the Trade Min­is­ter may be for­mer Oropouche West MP Vidya Gayadeen-Gopeesingh. There had al­so been spec­u­la­tion about a for­mer am­bas­sador to Wash­ing­ton, as well as a cos­met­ics mag­nate for the post.

Neil Go­sine, who won the Ch­agua­nas West seat, was an­nounced as Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary in the min­istry.

Mean­while, Dr Aiy­na Ali, who won the Princes Town seat, is tipped to be Deputy Speak­er of the House. She is the on­ly one of the UNC’s 26 suc­cess­ful can­di­dates for whom a Cab­i­net or ju­nior min­is­te­r­i­al post­ing was not giv­en dur­ing last Sat­ur­day’s swear­ing-in.

UNC sources al­so tipped for­mer Sen­ate leader Wade Mark as House Speak­er and ei­ther En­er­gy Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal or Hous­ing Min­is­ter David Lee for Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness in the House. Mooni­lal was the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship’s gov­ern­ment’s Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness. Lee was the Op­po­si­tion Chief Whip dur­ing the last term.

For­mer sen­a­tor Jayan­ti Lutch­me­di­al-Ram­di­al is among those tipped for Sen­ate Pres­i­dent or Sen­ate Leader. The UNC is yet to com­plete its sen­a­to­r­i­al post­ings. The Gov­ern­ment has 16 Sen­ate posts. Last Sat­ur­day, on­ly nine sen­a­tors were an­nounced and sev­en more are to be ap­point­ed. There have been hints that more sen­a­tors could in­clude the new Trade Min­is­ter, for­mer PP and UNC sen­a­tors Kevin Ram­nar­ine, Dami­an Ly­der and at­tor­ney Jagdeo Singh.

As min­is­ters get down to work this week, par­ty sources said de­ci­sions were al­so to be made on how port­fo­lios would be shared in min­istries with two min­is­ters, such as Health, Hous­ing, En­er­gy and En­er­gy Af­fairs, Min­istry of the Peo­ple, So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices, Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Pub­lic Util­i­ties, Ter­tiary Ed­u­ca­tion and Skills Train­ing and For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so has two min­is­ters in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter - Bar­ry Padarath (Pub­lic Util­i­ties) and Nicholas Mor­ris (Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary in For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs).

There has been no word on whether there will be some­one specif­i­cal­ly as­signed as a com­mu­ni­ca­tion head or press sec­re­tary.

Af­ter the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s Women’s League crit­i­cised the ab­sence of a Gen­der Af­fairs min­is­ter, UNC of­fi­cials said ap­point­ments and al­lo­ca­tion of re­spon­si­bil­i­ties are still on­go­ing. They re­peat­ed the re­sponse when asked about the fu­ture of for­mer MP Rudy In­dars­ingh.