Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

The Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) is tar­get­ing a crowd of more than 10,000 peo­ple for its April 25 con­gress, which will mark both the par­ty’s 37th an­niver­sary and its first year in gov­ern­ment.

The event will be held at the Cou­va South carpark, with some con­stituen­cies re­port­ed­ly aim­ing to mo­bilise at least 1,000 sup­port­ers each, UNC of­fi­cials said fol­low­ing a plan­ning meet­ing on Tues­day in­volv­ing ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers, coun­cil­lors, al­der­men, MPs and sen­a­tors at the par­ty’s head of­fice.

The dual com­mem­o­ra­tion marks 37 years since the UNC was found­ed and one year since it as­sumed of­fice fol­low­ing the April 28, 2025 gen­er­al elec­tion, con­test­ing un­der a coali­tion arrange­ment. The par­ty se­cured 26 of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s 41 con­stituen­cies, while the To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty (TPP) won To­ba­go East and To­ba­go West.

UNC po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar was sworn in as Prime Min­is­ter on May 1, 2025. Her 35-mem­ber ad­min­is­tra­tion, in­clud­ing 25 Cab­i­net min­is­ters, was sworn in on May 3.

The April 25 event is sched­uled to be­gin at 1 pm. Per­sad-Bisses­sar is ex­pect­ed to de­liv­er the fea­ture ad­dress in what the par­ty has de­scribed in its ad­ver­tise­ment as a “re­port to the na­tion,” along­side oth­er speak­ers.

The Prime Min­is­ter is ex­pect­ed to out­line the Gov­ern­ment’s per­for­mance over its first year in of­fice, ad­dress na­tion­al chal­lenges—in­clud­ing the fall­out from ten­sions in­volv­ing the Unit­ed States and Iran—and set out plans to mit­i­gate their im­pact, with an em­pha­sis on re­lief mea­sures for cit­i­zens.

She is al­so ex­pect­ed to bring pro­pos­als be­fore the Con­gress for con­sid­er­a­tion, in­clud­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty of in­ter­nal UNC ex­ec­u­tive elec­tions. The par­ty’s ex­ec­u­tive is elect­ed for a two-year term and the po­lit­i­cal leader for a three-year term. The cur­rent ex­ec­u­tive was elect­ed in June 2024, with in­ter­nal elec­tions ex­pect­ed lat­er this year, ac­cord­ing to par­ty sources. Per­sad-Bisses­sar was re-elect­ed as po­lit­i­cal leader in 2025, with the next lead­er­ship con­test due in 2028.

Con­tact­ed about Tues­day’s plan­ning meet­ing, par­ty chair­man Dave Tan­coo said he was out of the coun­try on of­fi­cial busi­ness and did not at­tend.

UNC gen­er­al sec­re­tary Pe­ter Kan­hai, who ap­peared in a UNC Face­book post ad­dress­ing the meet­ing, did not re­spond to calls. No re­spons­es were re­ceived from Par­ty Or­gan­is­er Bar­ry Padarath or Deputy Po­lit­i­cal Leader Roodal Mooni­lal, both of whom were al­so seen at the head ta­ble. Padarath was al­so pic­tured speak­ing at the ses­sion.

Oth­er par­ty of­fi­cials said the event will be at­tend­ed by con­stituents, UNC-ap­point­ed board mem­bers, coun­cil­lors and staff. Paid maxi-taxi trans­port is al­so be­ing arranged to bring sup­port­ers to the Cou­va venue.

UNC coali­tion part­ners are al­so ex­pect­ed to at­tend, of­fi­cials said, in­clud­ing Oil­fields Work­ers’ Trade Union (OW­TU) pres­i­dent An­cil Ro­get, for­mer Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion leader Leroy Bap­tiste—now Labour Min­is­ter in the UNC gov­ern­ment—and PSA rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

The Con­gress of the Peo­ple (COP), an­oth­er coali­tion part­ner, wrote to the UNC ear­li­er this month re­quest­ing a meet­ing to plan first-year an­niver­sary ac­tiv­i­ties and is await­ing a re­sponse, of­fi­cials said.

The Pro­gres­sive Em­pow­er­ment Par­ty (PEP), led by Phillip Alexan­der, has al­so been mo­bil­is­ing sup­port­ers since last week for the event. While the UNC has ad­ver­tised the gath­er­ing on its Face­book page as a con­gress mark­ing its 37th an­niver­sary, the PEP has de­scribed it as a “First Year Cel­e­bra­tion,” urg­ing sup­port­ers to as­sem­ble at NA­PA for a car­a­van to Cou­va.

Al­so ex­pect­ed at the April 25 event are To­ba­go Peo­ple’s Par­ty MPs David Thomas and Joel Samp­son, who sit on the Gov­ern­ment’s back­bench­es.

TPP po­lit­i­cal leader Far­ley Au­gus­tine did not re­spond to ques­tions on whether he or oth­er TPP rep­re­sen­ta­tives would at­tend. How­ev­er, UNC of­fi­cials said they ex­pect par­tic­i­pa­tion, not­ing that an­nounce­ments af­fect­ing To­ba­go may be made by the Prime Min­is­ter.

“There may be an­nounce­ments from the PM about To­ba­go, which is part of Trinidad and To­ba­go, so TPP/THA of­fi­cials are ex­pect­ed. The UNC has room for all,” one of­fi­cial said.