Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is ex­pect­ed to be sworn in as Trinidad and To­ba­go’s ninth prime min­is­ter by to­mor­row, ac­cord­ing to plans so far, say UNC of­fi­cials.

Par­ty of­fi­cials have been work­ing with the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter and Pres­i­dent’s House on the swear­ing-in func­tion. This fol­lows the UNC’s vic­to­ry in Mon­day’s Gen­er­al Elec­tion, where the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) lost just un­der half of its for­mer 22 seats to the UNC and To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP).

Al­so to be sworn in will be an at­tor­ney gen­er­al. Both of­fices to­geth­er form the cor­ner­stone of the Cab­i­net.

Names be­ing spec­u­lat­ed for the post of at­tor­ney gen­er­al in­clude at­tor­ney De­vesh Ma­haraj, who won Aranguez/St Joseph for the UNC, and for­mer PNM at­tor­ney gen­er­al John Je­re­mie, SC, who has been on the par­ty’s plat­form. Five of UNC’s suc­cess­ful can­di­dates in Mon­day’s elec­tion are at­tor­neys.

Be­fore fi­nal­is­ing the swear­ing-in of Per­sad-Bisses­sar, the UNC was yes­ter­day await­ing the con­clu­sion of three re­counts re­quest­ed for seats which the PNM won. The Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) said these were Arou­ca/Lopinot (won by Mar­vin Gon­za­les), Mal­abar/Mau­si­ca (won by Do­minic Ro­maine), and San Fer­nan­do East (Bri­an Man­ning).

UNC of­fi­cials said the pro­ce­dure was that elec­tion re­sults are sent to the Speak­er of the House for sub­mis­sion to the Pres­i­dent, who then in­vites the prime min­is­ter-elect to take the oath of of­fice. They, how­ev­er, not­ed it might not have been nec­es­sary to await the out­come of the re­counts, since the UNC al­ready has 26 seats.

Since Mon­day’s vic­to­ry, spec­u­la­tion has been rife on who will form the Cab­i­net and be ap­point­ed to the Gov­ern­ment’s 16 Sen­ate po­si­tions.

Sources tipped en­er­gy tran­si­tion spe­cial­ist Dr Randy Ra­mad­har Singh for the En­er­gy Min­istry. Spec­u­la­tion is on UNC Chief Op­er­a­tions Of­fi­cer Dr Tim Gopeesingh or for­mer sen­ate leader Wade Mark for Sen­ate pres­i­dent.

Dur­ing the last term, UNC MPs were ap­point­ed to shad­ow PNM min­is­ters’ port­fo­lios. As a re­sult, spec­u­la­tion has cen­tred on whether Bar­ry Padarath, the Cou­va South win­ner, will be ap­point­ed Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties or For­eign Af­fairs, and whether he might al­so take on re­spon­si­bil­i­ties with­in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter.

UNC of­fi­cials tipped Oropouche West win­ner Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe to head the Health Min­istry, with Na­pari­ma’s Dr Naren­dra Roop­nar­ine and Ca­roni East MP-elect Dr Rishad Seecher­an.

Two fi­nance min­is­ters are ex­pect­ed. It is un­cer­tain if Fyz­abad win­ner Dave Tan­coo–UNC’s fi­nance spokesman–will be in that min­istry.

Tipped for the Home Af­fairs, De­fence and Jus­tice Min­istries, which the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­istry will be di­vid­ed in­to, are Oropouche East win­ner Roodal Mooni­lal (who shad­owed Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty) and Tu­na­puna win­ner Roger Alexan­der. Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP) leader Prakash Ra­mad­har’s name has al­so been heard in con­nec­tion with this sec­tor.

Barataria/San Juan win­ner Sad­dam Ho­sein is tipped for se­cu­ri­ty, as well as the Le­gal Af­fairs di­vi­sion. San Fer­nan­do West win­ner Dr Michael Dowlath–a re­tired ed­u­ca­tor–is ex­pect­ed to be ap­point­ed to Ed­u­ca­tion.

Econ­o­mist In­di­ra Sage­wan is be­ing tipped for the Trade or For­eign Af­fairs Min­istry. There’s spec­u­la­tion about Khadi­jah Ameen, the St Au­gus­tine win­ner, in the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment sec­tor where she has “roots.”

Ch­agua­nas East win­ner Van­dana Mo­hit is tipped for the So­cial De­vel­op­ment Min­istry. Cou­va North MP Jear­lean John is ex­pect­ed to be ap­point­ed to ei­ther the Hous­ing or Works min­istry. Tipped for Fi­nance or Labour is ex-MP Rudy In­dars­ingh (who was a min­is­ter in Fi­nance in 2010).

To­co/San­gre Grande win­ner Wayne Sturge (an at­tor­ney) said dur­ing the cam­paign he did not want to be a min­is­ter, as he pre­ferred to be a full-time MP to bring the con­stituen­cy up to par. But his name has arisen in the area of se­cu­ri­ty.

For­mer PP en­er­gy min­is­ter Kevin Ram­nar­ine, Ca­roni Cen­tral win­ner David Lee and Ma­yaro’s Nicholas Mor­ris are all the fo­cus of spec­u­la­tion on en­er­gy sec­tor posts. Moru­ga’s Michelle Ben­jamin is tipped for the Youth De­vel­op­ment port­fo­lio.

UNC of­fi­cials ex­pect the 16 Sen­ate po­si­tions will in­clude rep­re­sen­ta­tives from UNC’s coali­tion part­ners, in­clud­ing the Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion, Oil­fields Work­ers’ Trade Union, Sea­men and Wa­ter­front Work­ers. Trade Union, the Peo­ple’s Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty, COP and Love Move­ment.

The com­mu­ni­ty and cul­ture sec­tors and the pro­posed Min­istry of Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence are ex­pect­ed to be head­ed by peo­ple from such spheres who sup­port­ed UNC’s cam­paign.

On Mon­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar sig­nalled open­ness to the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) be­ing part of her gov­ern­ment. How­ev­er, TPP of­fi­cials did not re­ply yes­ter­day on whether they were open to the of­fer and if any con­di­tions may be placed on it.

Cer­tain for­mer MPs who were not se­lect­ed to con­test are al­so tipped to be ap­point­ed am­bas­sadors.